Winter Evening at Home
Fair Moon, that at the chilly day's declineOf sharp December through my cottage paneDost lovely look, smiling, though in thy wane!In thought, to scenes, serene and still as thine,Wanders my heart, whilst I by turns surveyThee slowly wheeling on thy evening way;And this my fire, whose dim, unequal light,Just glimmering, bids each shadowy image fallSombrous and strange upon the darkening wall,Ere the clear tapers chase the deepening night!Yet thy still orb, seen through the freezing haze,Shines calm and clear without; and whilst I gaze,I think, around me in this twilight room,I but remark mortality's sad gloom;Whilst hope and joy cloudless and soft appear,In the sweet beam that lights thy distant sphere.
Words in this poem
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- sombrous a.
- Gloomy; somber. [Cf. Sp. sombroso.]
- cloudless a.
- Without a cloud; clear; bright.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winter Evening at Home 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, Winter Evening at Home, in Sonnets, and Other Poems (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/winter-evening-at-home.html, id L09948.
Form and metre
Winter Evening at Home is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBACCDEEDFFGGHH declineA · paneB · waneB · thineA · surveyC · wayC · lightD · fallE · wallE · nightD · hazeF · gazeF · roomG · gloomG · appearH · sphereH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fair Moon, that at the chilly day's decline | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Of sharp December through my cottage pane | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Dost lovely look, smiling, though in thy wane! | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| In thought, to scenes, serene and still as thine, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Wanders my heart, whilst I by turns survey | 10 | /˘······/· |
| Thee slowly wheeling on thy evening way; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And this my fire, whose dim, unequal light, | 10 | ···/··˘/˘· |
| Just glimmering, bids each shadowy image fall | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Sombrous and strange upon the darkening wall, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Ere the clear tapers chase the deepening night! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Yet thy still orb, seen through the freezing haze, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Shines calm and clear without; and whilst I gaze, | 10 | ·········· |
| I think, around me in this twilight room, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| I but remark mortality's sad gloom; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| Whilst hope and joy cloudless and soft appear, | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| In the sweet beam that lights thy distant sphere. | 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.