Music on the Thames
As I have seen when on the breast of ThamesA heavenly bevy of sweet English dames,In some calm ev'ning of delightful May,With music give a farewell to the day,Or as they would, with an admired tone,Greet Night's ascension to her ebon throne,Rapt with their melody a thousand moreRun to be wafted from the bounding shore.
Words in this poem
- bevy n.
- A company; an assembly or collection of persons, especially of ladies. [Perhaps orig. a drinking company, fr. OF. bevée (cf. It. beva) a drink, beverage; then, perh., a company in general, esp. of ladies; and last applied by sportsm]
- admired a.
- Regarded with wonder and delight; highly prized; as, an admired poem.
- ascension n.
- The act of ascending; a rising; ascent. [F. ascension, L. ascensio, fr. ascendere. See Ascend.]
- ebon a.
- Consisting of ebony.
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Music on the Thames is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pastoral Poems by Nicholas Breton, Selected Poetry by George Wither, and Pastoral Poetry by William Browne (of Tavistock), Project Gutenberg ebook #22001; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Nicholas Breton, Music on the Thames, in Pastoral Poems and Selected Poetry (1597–1604), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22001, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/breton-poems/music-on-the-thames.html, id L08854.
Form and metre
Music on the Thames is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 93% 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 --AABBCC thames · dames · mayA · dayA · toneB · throneB · moreC · shoreC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As I have seen when on the breast of Thames | 10 | ·········· |
| A heavenly bevy of sweet English dames, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| In some calm ev'ning of delightful May, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| With music give a farewell to the day, | 10 | ·/˘···/··· |
| Or as they would, with an admired tone, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Greet Night's ascension to her ebon throne, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Rapt with their melody a thousand more | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Run to be wafted from the bounding shore. | 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.