The Winds
When dark November bade the leaves adieu,And the gale sung amid the sea-boy's shrouds,Methought I saw four winged forms, that flew,With garments streaming light, amid the clouds;From adverse regions of the sky,In dim succession, they went by.The first, as o'er the billowy deep he passed,Blew from its brazen trump a far-resounding blast.Upon a beaked promontory high,With streaming heart, and cloudy brow severe,Marked ye the father of the frowning year!Dark vapours rolled o'er the tempestuous sky,When creeping WINTER from his cave came forth;Stern courier of the storm, he cried, what from the north?
Words in this poem
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- billowy a.
- Of or pertaining to billows; swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.
- beaked a.
- Having a beak or a beaklike point; beak-shaped.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Winds 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 Winds, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/the-winds.html, id L09972.
Form and metre
The Winds 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 83%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables.
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 adieuA · shroudsB · flewA · cloudsB · skyC · byD · passedC · blastD · highE · severeF · yearE · skyF · forthG · northG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When dark November bade the leaves adieu, | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| And the gale sung amid the sea-boy's shrouds, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Methought I saw four winged forms, that flew, | 10 | ˘/····˘··· |
| With garments streaming light, amid the clouds; | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| From adverse regions of the sky, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| In dim succession, they went by. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| The first, as o'er the billowy deep he passed, | 11 | ·····/˘˘··· |
| Blew from its brazen trump a far-resounding blast. | 12 | ···/˘···˘/˘· |
| Upon a beaked promontory high, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘˘· |
| With streaming heart, and cloudy brow severe, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Marked ye the father of the frowning year! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Dark vapours rolled o'er the tempestuous sky, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| When creeping WINTER from his cave came forth; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Stern courier of the storm, he cried, what from the north? | 12 | ·/˘········· |
Notes from the edition 1
Bowles's own notes to his Poetical Works (Project Gutenberg #18915).
- Line 11 "Then comes the father of the tempest forth."--Thomson.
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