To Cowper
Sweet are thy strains, celestial Bard;And oft, in childhood's years,I've read them o'er and o'er again,With floods of silent tears.
The language of my inmost heartI traced in every line;MY sins, MY sorrows, hopes, and fears,Were there-and only mine.
All for myself the sigh would swell,The tear of anguish start;I little knew what wilder woeHad filled the Poet's heart.
I did not know the nights of gloom,The days of misery;The long, long years of dark despair,That crushed and tortured thee.
But they are gone; from earth at lengthThy gentle soul is pass'd,And in the bosom of its GodHas found its home at last.
It must be so, if God is love,And answers fervent prayer;Then surely thou shalt dwell on high,And I may meet thee there.
Is He the source of every good,The spring of purity?Then in thine hours of deepest woe,Thy God was still with thee.
How else, when every hope was fled,Couldst thou so fondly clingTo holy things and help men?And how so sweetly sing,
Of things that God alone could teach?And whence that purity,That hatred of all sinful ways--That gentle charity?
Are THESE the symptoms of a heartOf heavenly grace bereft--For ever banished from its God,To Satan's fury left?
Yet, should thy darkest fears be true,If Heaven be so severe,That such a soul as thine is lost,--Oh! how shall I appear?
Words in this poem
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
- fervent a.
- Hot; glowing; boiling; burning; as, a fervent summer. [F. fervent, L. fervens, -entis. p.pr. of fervere o the boiling hot, to boil, glow.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- 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
To Cowper is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Project Gutenberg ebook #1019; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, To Cowper, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/to-cowper.html, id L13260.
Form and metre
To Cowper is 44 lines in 11 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A bard · yearsA · again · tearsA
- 2 -A-A heart · lineA · fears · mineA
- 3 -A-A swell · startA · woe · heartA
- 5 -A-A length · pass'dA · god · lastA
- 6 -A-A love · prayerA · high · thereA
- 8 -A-A fled · clingA · men · singA
- 10 -A-A heart · bereftA · god · leftA
- 11 -A-A true · severeA · lost · appearA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet are thy strains, celestial Bard; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And oft, in childhood's years, | 6 | ···/·· |
| I've read them o'er and o'er again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| With floods of silent tears. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The language of my inmost heart | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I traced in every line; | 8 | ··˘·/˘˘· |
| MY sins, MY sorrows, hopes, and fears, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were there-and only mine. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| All for myself the sigh would swell, | 8 | ···/···· |
| The tear of anguish start; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I little knew what wilder woe | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Had filled the Poet's heart. | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| I did not know the nights of gloom, | 8 | ········ |
| The days of misery; | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| The long, long years of dark despair, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That crushed and tortured thee. | 8 | ··˘·/˘˘· |
| But they are gone; from earth at length | 8 | ········ |
| Thy gentle soul is pass'd, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And in the bosom of its God | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Has found its home at last. | 6 | ······ |
| It must be so, if God is love, | 8 | ········ |
| And answers fervent prayer; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Then surely thou shalt dwell on high, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And I may meet thee there. | 6 | ······ |
| Is He the source of every good, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The spring of purity? | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Then in thine hours of deepest woe, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Thy God was still with thee. | 6 | ······ |
| How else, when every hope was fled, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Couldst thou so fondly cling | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To holy things and help men? | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And how so sweetly sing, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of things that God alone could teach? | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And whence that purity, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| That hatred of all sinful ways-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That gentle charity? | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Are THESE the symptoms of a heart | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of heavenly grace bereft-- | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| For ever banished from its God, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To Satan's fury left? | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Yet, should thy darkest fears be true, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| If Heaven be so severe, | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| That such a soul as thine is lost,-- | 8 | ········ |
| Oh! how shall I appear? | 6 | ····˘/ |
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.