Morning.—Turner
Up! for the morning shines with welcome ray,And to the sunny seabeach let us stray.What orient hues proclaim the master's hand!How light the wave upon the half-wet sand!How beautiful the sun, as still we gaze,Streams all diffusive through the opening haze!Artist--when to the thunder's pealing sound,Fire mixed with hailstones ran upon the ground,When partial darkness the dread prospect hid,And sole aspired the aged pyramid--Sublimity thy genius seemed to guideO'er Egypt's champaign, desolate and wide;But here delightful beauty reigns alone,And decks the morning scene with graces all her own.
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- seabeach n.
- A beach lying along the sea.
- diffusive a.
- Having the quality of diffusing; capable of spreading every way by flowing; spreading widely; widely reaching; copious; diffuse. [Cf. F. diffusif.]
- artist n.
- One who practices some mechanic art or craft; an artisan. [F. artiste, LL. artista, fr. L. ars. See Art, n., and cf. Artiste.]
- sublimity n.
- The quality or state of being sublime (in any sense of the adjective). [L. sublimitas: cf. F. sublimité.]
- champaign n.
- A flat, open country. [OF. champaigne; same word as campagne.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Morning.—Turner is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan, Project Gutenberg ebook #18915; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Lisle Bowles, Morning.—Turner, in Sonnets, and Other Poems (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/morning-turner.html, id L09967.
Form and metre
Morning.—Turner is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG rayA · strayB · handA · sandB · gazeC · hazeD · soundC · groundD · hidE · pyramidF · guideE · wideF · aloneG · ownG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Up! for the morning shines with welcome ray, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And to the sunny seabeach let us stray. | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| What orient hues proclaim the master's hand! | 11 | ·/˘··˘/·/˘· |
| How light the wave upon the half-wet sand! | 10 | ·········· |
| How beautiful the sun, as still we gaze, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Streams all diffusive through the opening haze! | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Artist--when to the thunder's pealing sound, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Fire mixed with hailstones ran upon the ground, | 10 | /··/······ |
| When partial darkness the dread prospect hid, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And sole aspired the aged pyramid-- | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Sublimity thy genius seemed to guide | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| O'er Egypt's champaign, desolate and wide; | 10 | ·/˘˘//˘··· |
| But here delightful beauty reigns alone, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And decks the morning scene with graces all her own. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.