Sonnet 108: Fair Tajo! thou whose calmly-flowing tide
Fair Tajo! thou whose calmly-flowing tideBathes the fresh verdure of these lovely plains,Enlivening all where’er thy waves may glide,Flowers, herbage, flocks, and sylvan nymphs and swains.Sweet stream! I know not when my steps againShall tread thy shores; and while to part I mourn,I have no hope to meliorate my pain,No dream that whispers--I may yet return!My frowning destiny, whose watchful careForbids me blessings and ordains despair,Commands me thus to leave thee, and repineAnd I must vainly mourn the scenes I fly,And breathe on other gales my plaintive sigh,And blend my tears with other waves than thine!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- meliorate v. t.
- To make better; to improve; to ameliorate; to soften; to make more tolerable. [L. melioratus, p. p. of meliorare to meliorate, fr. melior better; akin to Gr. Ameliorate.]
- repine v. i.
- To fail; to wane. [Pref. re- + pine to languish.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 108: Fair Tajo! thou whose calmly-flowing tide 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, Sonnet 108: Fair Tajo! thou whose calmly-flowing tide, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/sonnet-108-fair-tajo-thou-whose-calmly-flowing-tide.html, id L13436.
Form and metre
Sonnet 108: Fair Tajo! thou whose calmly-flowing tide is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABABC-C-DD-EE- tideA · plainsB · glideA · swainsB · againC · mourn · painC · return · careD · despairD · repine · flyE · sighE · thine
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fair Tajo! thou whose calmly-flowing tide | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Bathes the fresh verdure of these lovely plains, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Enlivening all where’er thy waves may glide, | 11 | ˘/˘·˘˘/···· |
| Flowers, herbage, flocks, and sylvan nymphs and swains. | 10 | //˘··/˘··· |
| Sweet stream! I know not when my steps again | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Shall tread thy shores; and while to part I mourn, | 10 | ·········· |
| I have no hope to meliorate my pain, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| No dream that whispers--I may yet return! | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| My frowning destiny, whose watchful care | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Forbids me blessings and ordains despair, | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Commands me thus to leave thee, and repine | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| And I must vainly mourn the scenes I fly, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And breathe on other gales my plaintive sigh, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And blend my tears with other waves than thine! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.