Lines on Revisiting Cathcart
Oh! scenes of my childhood, and dear to my heartYe green waving woods on the margin of Cart,How blest in the morning of life I have strayed,By the stream of the vale and the grass-covered glade!
Then, then every rapture was young and sincere,Ere the sunshine of bliss was bedimmed by a tear,And a sweeter delight every scene seemed to lend,That the mansion of peace was the house of a friend.
Now the scenes of my childhood and dear to my heart,All pensive I visit, and sigh to depart;Their flowers seem to languish, their beauty to cease,For a stranger inhabits the mansion of peace.
But hushed be the sigh that untimely complains,While Friendship and all its enchantment remains,While it blooms like the flower of a winterless clime,Untainted by chance, unabated by time.
Words in this poem
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- mansion n.
- A dwelling place, -- whether a part or whole of a house or other shelter. [OF. mansion, F. maison, fr. L. mansio a staying, remaining, a dwelling, habitation, fr. manere, mansum, to stay, dwell; akin to Gr. Manse, Manor, Menagerie, Men]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines on Revisiting Cathcart is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, Project Gutenberg ebook #59788; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Campbell, Lines on Revisiting Cathcart, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/lines-on-revisiting-cathcart.html, id L24452.
Form and metre
Lines on Revisiting Cathcart is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 AABB heartA · cartA · strayedB · gladeB
- 2 AABB sincereA · tearA · lendB · friendB
- 3 AABB heartA · departA · ceaseB · peaceB
- 4 AABB complainsA · remainsA · climeB · timeB
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! scenes of my childhood, and dear to my heart | 11 | ····/······ |
| Ye green waving woods on the margin of Cart, | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| How blest in the morning of life I have strayed, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| By the stream of the vale and the grass-covered glade! | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Then, then every rapture was young and sincere, | 11 | ··/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Ere the sunshine of bliss was bedimmed by a tear, | 12 | ··/········· |
| And a sweeter delight every scene seemed to lend, | 12 | ··/˘˘//˘···· |
| That the mansion of peace was the house of a friend. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| Now the scenes of my childhood and dear to my heart, | 12 | ·····/······ |
| All pensive I visit, and sigh to depart; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Their flowers seem to languish, their beauty to cease, | 11 | ·/··/˘·/˘·· |
| For a stranger inhabits the mansion of peace. | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| But hushed be the sigh that untimely complains, | 11 | ······˘/˘˘/ |
| While Friendship and all its enchantment remains, | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘/ |
| While it blooms like the flower of a winterless clime, | 12 | ·····/······ |
| Untainted by chance, unabated by time. | 11 | ˘/˘···˘/˘·· |
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.