Critical Annotations on “The Forest Sanctuary”
“‘Ora pro nobis, Mater!’ what a spellWas in those notes,” etc.
“But we must cease making extracts, for we could not transfer all thatis beautiful in the poem without transferring the whole.”--NorthAmerican Review, April 1827.
‘And if she mingled with the festive train,It was but as some melancholy starBeholds the dance of shepherds on the plain,In its bright stillness present, though afar.’“Letters from Spain by Don Leucadio Doblado.”
Words in this poem
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Critical Annotations on “The Forest Sanctuary” is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Critical Annotations on “The Forest Sanctuary”, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/critical-annotations-on-the-forest-sanctuary.html, id L19326.
Form and metre
Critical Annotations on “The Forest Sanctuary” is 10 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
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.
- 3 ABAB- trainA · starB · plainA · afarB · doblado
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “‘Ora pro nobis, Mater!’ what a spell | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Was in those notes,” etc. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| “But we must cease making extracts, for we could not transfer all that | 16 | ····/˘˘/····˘/·· |
| is beautiful in the poem without transferring the whole.”--North | 14 | ·/˘··/··˘/˘··· |
| American Review, April 1827. | 8 | ˘/˘˘·//˘ |
| ‘And if she mingled with the festive train, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| It was but as some melancholy star | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| Beholds the dance of shepherds on the plain, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| In its bright stillness present, though afar.’ | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| “Letters from Spain by Don Leucadio Doblado.” | 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.