Retrospection
I turn these leaves with thronging thoughts, and say,Alas! how many friends of youth are dead;How many visions of fair hope have fled,Since first, my Muse, we met.--So speeds awayLife, and its shadows; yet we sit and sing,Stretched in the noontide bower, as if the dayDeclined not, and we yet might trill our layBeneath the pleasant morning's purple wingThat fans us; while aloft the gay clouds shine!Oh, ere the coming of the long cold night,Religion, may we bless thy purer light,That still shall warm us, when the tints declineO'er earth's dim hemisphere; and sad we gazeOn the vain visions of our passing days!
Words in this poem
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Retrospection 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, Retrospection, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/retrospection.html, id L09905.
Form and metre
Retrospection 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 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% 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 sayA · deadB · fledA · awayB · singC · dayD · layC · wingD · shineE · nightF · lightE · declineF · gazeG · daysG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I turn these leaves with thronging thoughts, and say, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Alas! how many friends of youth are dead; | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| How many visions of fair hope have fled, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Since first, my Muse, we met.--So speeds away | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Life, and its shadows; yet we sit and sing, | 10 | ···/······ |
| Stretched in the noontide bower, as if the day | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Declined not, and we yet might trill our lay | 10 | ˘/······/· |
| Beneath the pleasant morning's purple wing | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| That fans us; while aloft the gay clouds shine! | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Oh, ere the coming of the long cold night, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Religion, may we bless thy purer light, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| That still shall warm us, when the tints decline | 10 | ········˘/ |
| O'er earth's dim hemisphere; and sad we gaze | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| On the vain visions of our passing days! | 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.