The Convent
If chance some pensive stranger, hither led,His bosom glowing from majestic views,Temple and tower 'mid the bright landscape's hues,Should ask who sleeps beneath this lowly bed?A maid of sorrow. To the cloistered scene,Unknown and beautiful a mourner came,Seeking with unseen tears to quench the flameOf hapless love: yet was her look sereneAs the pale moonlight in the midnight aisle;--Her voice was gentle and a charm could lend,Like that which spoke of a departed friend;And a meek sadness sat upon her smile!--Now, far removed from every earthly ill,Her woes are buried, and her heart is still.
Words in this poem
- cloistered a.
- Dwelling in cloisters; solitary.
- mourner n.
- One who mourns or is grieved at any misfortune, as the death of a friend.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Convent 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, The Convent, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/the-convent.html, id L09887.
Form and metre
The Convent 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 89%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 14% 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 ledA · viewsB · huesA · bedB · sceneC · cameD · flameC · sereneD · aisleE · lendF · friendE · smileF · illG · stillG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If chance some pensive stranger, hither led, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| His bosom glowing from majestic views, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Temple and tower 'mid the bright landscape's hues, | 10 | /˘·/···/·· |
| Should ask who sleeps beneath this lowly bed? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A maid of sorrow. To the cloistered scene, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Unknown and beautiful a mourner came, | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Seeking with unseen tears to quench the flame | 10 | /˘·˘/····· |
| Of hapless love: yet was her look serene | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| As the pale moonlight in the midnight aisle;-- | 10 | ···/···/·· |
| Her voice was gentle and a charm could lend, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Like that which spoke of a departed friend; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And a meek sadness sat upon her smile!-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Now, far removed from every earthly ill, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Her woes are buried, and her heart is still. | 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.