Song to the Evening Star
Star that bringest home the bee,And sett’st the weary labourer free!If any star shed peace, ’tis thou,That send’st it from above,Appearing when Heaven’s breath and browAre sweet as hers we love.
Come to the luxuriant skies,Whilst the landscape’s odours rise,Whilst far-off lowing herds are heard,And songs, when toil is done,From cottages whose smoke unstirredCurls yellow in the sun.
Star of love’s soft interviews,Parted lovers on thee muse;Their remembrancer in HeavenOf thrilling vows thou art,Too delicious to be rivenBy absence from the heart.
Words in this poem
- lowing n.
- The calling sound made by cows and other bovine animals.
- remembrancer n.
- One who, or that which, serves to bring to, or keep in, mind; a memento; a memorial; a reminder.
- thrilling a.
- Causing a thrill; causing tremulous excitement; deeply moving; as, a thrilling romance.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song to the Evening Star 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, Song to the Evening Star, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/song-to-the-evening-star.html, id L24425.
Form and metre
Song to the Evening Star is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCBC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 AABCBC beeA · freeA · thouB · aboveC · browB · loveC
- 2 AABCBC skiesA · riseA · heardB · doneC · unstirredB · sunC
- 3 AA-B-B interviewsA · museA · heaven · artB · riven · heartB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Star that bringest home the bee, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And sett’st the weary labourer free! | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| If any star shed peace, ’tis thou, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That send’st it from above, | 6 | ······ |
| Appearing when Heaven’s breath and brow | 9 | ˘/˘·/˘··· |
| Are sweet as hers we love. | 6 | ······ |
| Come to the luxuriant skies, | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| Whilst the landscape’s odours rise, | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| Whilst far-off lowing herds are heard, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And songs, when toil is done, | 6 | ······ |
| From cottages whose smoke unstirred | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Curls yellow in the sun. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Star of love’s soft interviews, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Parted lovers on thee muse; | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Their remembrancer in Heaven | 8 | ·˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| Of thrilling vows thou art, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Too delicious to be riven | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| By absence from the heart. | 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.