Sonnet 271
This mountain-scene with sylvan grandeur crown’d,These chestnut-woods, in summer verdure bright;These founts and rivulets, whose mingling soundLulls every bosom to serene delight;Soft on these hills the sun’s declining ray;This clime, where all is new; these murmuring seas;Flocks, to the fold that bend their lingering way;Light clouds, contending with the genial breeze;And all that Nature’s lavish hands dispense,In gay luxuriance, charming every sense,Ne’er in thy absence can delight my breast:Nought, without thee, my weary soul beguiles:And joy may beam; yet, midst her brightest smiles,A secret grief is mine, that will not rest.
Words in this poem
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
- genial a.
- Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive. [L. genialis: cf. OF. genial. See Genius.]
- dispense v. i.
- To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
- luxuriance n.
- The state or quality of being luxuriant; rank, vigorous growth; excessive abundance produced by rank growth. [Cf. F. luxuriance.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 271 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 271, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/sonnet-271.html, id L13434.
Form and metre
Sonnet 271 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEEFGGF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 7% 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 ABABCDCDEEFGGF crown'dA · brightB · soundA · delightB · rayC · seasD · wayC · breezeD · dispenseE · senseE · breastF · beguilesG · smilesG · restF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This mountain-scene with sylvan grandeur crown’d, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘/· |
| These chestnut-woods, in summer verdure bright; | 10 | ·/···/˘/˘· |
| These founts and rivulets, whose mingling sound | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Lulls every bosom to serene delight; | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Soft on these hills the sun’s declining ray; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| This clime, where all is new; these murmuring seas; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Flocks, to the fold that bend their lingering way; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Light clouds, contending with the genial breeze; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| And all that Nature’s lavish hands dispense, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| In gay luxuriance, charming every sense, | 11 | ··˘/˘˘/˘/˘· |
| Ne’er in thy absence can delight my breast: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Nought, without thee, my weary soul beguiles: | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And joy may beam; yet, midst her brightest smiles, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A secret grief is mine, that will not rest. | 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.