Music
O harmony! thou tenderest nurse of pain,If that thy note's sweet magic e'er can healGriefs which the patient spirit oft may feel,Oh! let me listen to thy songs again;Till memory her fairest tints shall bring;Hope wake with brighter eye, and listening seemWith smiles to think on some delightful dream,That waved o'er the charmed sense its gladsome wing!For when thou leadest all thy soothing strainsMore smooth along, the silent passions meetIn one suspended transport, sad and sweet;And nought but sorrow's softest touch remains;That, when the transitory charm is o'er,Just wakes a tear, and then is felt no more.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- gladsome a.
- Pleased; joyful; cheerful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Music 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, Music, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/music.html, id L09901.
Form and metre
Music 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 87%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% 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 painA · healB · feelA · againB · bringC · seemD · dreamC · wingD · strainsE · meetF · sweetE · remainsF · o'erG · moreG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O harmony! thou tenderest nurse of pain, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘··· |
| If that thy note's sweet magic e'er can heal | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Griefs which the patient spirit oft may feel, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Oh! let me listen to thy songs again; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Till memory her fairest tints shall bring; | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Hope wake with brighter eye, and listening seem | 10 | ···/··/˘˘· |
| With smiles to think on some delightful dream, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| That waved o'er the charmed sense its gladsome wing! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For when thou leadest all thy soothing strains | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| More smooth along, the silent passions meet | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| In one suspended transport, sad and sweet; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| And nought but sorrow's softest touch remains; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| That, when the transitory charm is o'er, | 10 | ···/˘·˘··· |
| Just wakes a tear, and then is felt no more. | 10 | ·········· |
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.