Sonnets Attempted in the Manner of Contemporary Writers I
Pensive at eve on the hard world I mus'd,And my poor heart was sad: so at the moonI gaz'd-and sigh'd, and sigh'd!--for, ah! how soonEve darkens into night. Mine eye perus'dWith tearful vacancy the dampy grassWhich wept and glitter'd in the paly ray;And I did pause me on my lonely way,And mused me on those wretched ones who passO'er the black heath of Sorrow. But, alas!Most of Myself I thought: when it befellThat the sooth Spirit of the breezy woodBreath'd in mine ear--"All this is very well;But much of one thing is for no thing good."Ah! my poor heart's inexplicable swell!
Words in this poem
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- vacancy n.
- The quality or state of being vacant; emptiness; hence, freedom from employment; intermission; leisure; idleness; listlessness. [Cf. F. vacance.]
- dampy a.
- Somewhat damp. Drayton.
- paly a.
- Pale; wanting color; dim. Shak. Whittier. [From Pale, a.]
- sooth a.
- True; faithful; trustworthy. [OE. soth, AS. s, for san; akin to OS. s, OHG. sand, Icel. sannr, Sw. sann, Dan. sand, Skr. sat, sant, real, genuine, present, being; properly p. pr. from a root]
- breezy a.
- Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnets Attempted in the Manner of Contemporary Writers I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Coleridge, Project Gutenberg ebook #8208; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sonnets Attempted in the Manner of Contemporary Writers I, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/sonnets-attempted-in-the-manner-of-contemporary-writers-i.html, id L00380.
Form and metre
Sonnets Attempted in the Manner of Contemporary Writers I is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCCEFEFE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 50% 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 ABBACDDCCEFEFE mus'dA · moonB · soonB · perus'dA · grassC · rayD · wayD · passC · alasC · befellE · woodF · wellE · goodF · swellE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pensive at eve on the hard world I mus'd, | 10 | /˘········ |
| And my poor heart was sad: so at the moon | 10 | ·········· |
| I gaz'd-and sigh'd, and sigh'd!--for, ah! how soon | 10 | ·········· |
| Eve darkens into night. Mine eye perus'd | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| With tearful vacancy the dampy grass | 9 | ·/˘/˘·/˘· |
| Which wept and glitter'd in the paly ray; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And I did pause me on my lonely way, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And mused me on those wretched ones who pass | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| O'er the black heath of Sorrow. But, alas! | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Most of Myself I thought: when it befell | 10 | ···/····˘/ |
| That the sooth Spirit of the breezy wood | 9 | ···/··/˘· |
| Breath'd in mine ear--"All this is very well; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But much of one thing is for no thing good." | 10 | ·········· |
| Ah! my poor heart's inexplicable swell! | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
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.