To Imagination
When weary with the long day's care,And earthly change from pain to pain,And lost, and ready to despair,Thy kind voice calls me back again:Oh, my true friend! I am not lone,While then canst speak with such a tone!
So hopeless is the world without;The world within I doubly prize;Thy world, where guile, and hate, and doubt,And cold suspicion never rise;Where thou, and I, and Liberty,Have undisputed sovereignty.
What matters it, that all aroundDanger, and guilt, and darkness lie,If but within our bosom's boundWe hold a bright, untroubled sky,Warm with ten thousand mingled raysOf suns that know no winter days?
Reason, indeed, may oft complainFor Nature's sad reality,And tell the suffering heart how vainIts cherished dreams must always be;And Truth may rudely trample downThe flowers of Fancy, newly-blown:
But thou art ever there, to bringThe hovering vision back, and breatheNew glories o'er the blighted spring,And call a lovelier Life from Death.And whisper, with a voice divine,Of real worlds, as bright as thine.
I trust not to thy phantom bliss,Yet, still, in evening's quiet hour,With never-failing thankfulness,I welcome thee, Benignant Power;Sure solacer of human cares,And sweeter hope, when hope despairs!
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- benignant a.
- Kind; gracious; favorable. [LL. benignans, p. pr. of benignare, from L. benignus. See Benign.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Imagination 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 Imagination, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/to-imagination.html, id L13241.
Form and metre
To Imagination is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABABCC, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC careA · painB · despairA · againB · loneC · toneC
- 2 ABAB-- withoutA · prizeB · doubtA · riseB · liberty · sovereignty
- 3 ABABCC aroundA · lieB · boundA · skyB · raysC · daysC
- 4 A-A--- complainA · reality · vainA · be · down · blown
- 5 A-A-BB bringA · breathe · springA · death · divineB · thineB
- 6 -A-ABB bliss · hourA · thankfulness · powerA · caresB · despairsB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When weary with the long day's care, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And earthly change from pain to pain, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And lost, and ready to despair, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Thy kind voice calls me back again: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Oh, my true friend! I am not lone, | 8 | ········ |
| While then canst speak with such a tone! | 8 | ········ |
| So hopeless is the world without; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The world within I doubly prize; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy world, where guile, and hate, and doubt, | 8 | ········ |
| And cold suspicion never rise; | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Where thou, and I, and Liberty, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Have undisputed sovereignty. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| What matters it, that all around | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Danger, and guilt, and darkness lie, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| If but within our bosom's bound | 8 | ····//˘· |
| We hold a bright, untroubled sky, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Warm with ten thousand mingled rays | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Of suns that know no winter days? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Reason, indeed, may oft complain | 8 | /˘˘/··˘/ |
| For Nature's sad reality, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| And tell the suffering heart how vain | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Its cherished dreams must always be; | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| And Truth may rudely trample down | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The flowers of Fancy, newly-blown: | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘· |
| But thou art ever there, to bring | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The hovering vision back, and breathe | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| New glories o'er the blighted spring, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And call a lovelier Life from Death. | 9 | ········· |
| And whisper, with a voice divine, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Of real worlds, as bright as thine. | 7 | ······· |
| I trust not to thy phantom bliss, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Yet, still, in evening's quiet hour, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| With never-failing thankfulness, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I welcome thee, Benignant Power; | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Sure solacer of human cares, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And sweeter hope, when hope despairs! | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
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.