A Sonnet
A power is on the earth and in the air,From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid,And shelters him, in nooks of deepest shade,From the hot steam and from the fiery glare.Look forth upon the earth--her thousand plantsAre smitten; even the dark sun-loving maizeFaints in the field beneath the torrid blaze;The herd beside the shaded fountain pants;For life is driven from all the landscape brown;The bird has sought his tree, the snake his den,The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and menDrop by the sun-stroke in the populous town:As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sentIts deadly breath into the firmament.
Words in this poem
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- populous a.
- Abounding in people; full of inhabitants; containing many inhabitants in proportion to the extent of the country. [L. populosus, fr. populus people: cf. F. populeux.]
- firmament n.
- Fixed foundation; established basis. [L. firmamentum, fr. firmare to make firm: cf. F. firmament. See Firm, v. & a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Sonnet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by William Cullen Bryant, Project Gutenberg ebook #16341; 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 Cullen Bryant, A Sonnet, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/a-sonnet-3.html, id L07303.
Form and metre
A Sonnet is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCEFFEGG. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABBACDDCEFFEGG airA · afraidB · shadeB · glareA · plantsC · maizeD · blazeD · pantsC · brownE · denF · menF · townE · sentG · firmamentG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A power is on the earth and in the air, | 10 | ·/········ |
| From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And shelters him, in nooks of deepest shade, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| From the hot steam and from the fiery glare. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Look forth upon the earth--her thousand plants | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Are smitten; even the dark sun-loving maize | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The herd beside the shaded fountain pants; | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| For life is driven from all the landscape brown; | 10 | ···/···/·· |
| The bird has sought his tree, the snake his den, | 10 | ·········· |
| The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men | 10 | ·········· |
| Drop by the sun-stroke in the populous town: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sent | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Its deadly breath into the firmament. | 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.