A Sonnet
Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun!One mellow smile through the soft vapoury air,Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds run,Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare.One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,And the blue gentian flower, that, in the breeze,Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.Yet a few sunny days, in which the beeShall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way,The cricket chirp upon the russet lea,And man delight to linger in thy ray.Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bearThe piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air.
Words in this poem
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- 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
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-6.html, id L18540.
Form and metre
A Sonnet is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFBB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 14% 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 ABABCDCDEFEFBB sunA · airB · runA · bareB · treesC · castD · breezeC · lastD · beeE · wayF · leaE · rayF · bearB · airB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun! | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| One mellow smile through the soft vapoury air, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds run, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare. | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| One smile on the brown hills and naked trees, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And the blue gentian flower, that, in the breeze, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘˘··· |
| Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The cricket chirp upon the russet lea, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And man delight to linger in thy ray. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear | 10 | ·········· |
| The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air. | 12 | ·/˘/˘····/˘· |
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.