Sonnet 70: High in the glowing heavens, with cloudless beam
High in the glowing heavens, with cloudless beam,The sun had reach’d the zenith of his reign,And for the living fount, the gelid stream,Each flock forsook the herbage of the plain:Midst the dark foliage of the forest shade,The birds had shelter’d from the scorching ray;Hush’d were their melodies--and grove and gladeResounded but the shrill cicada’s lay:When, through the grassy vale, a love-lorn swain,To seek the maid who but despised his pain,Breathing vain sighs of fruitless passion, roved:“Why pine for her,” the slighted wanderer cried,“By whom thou art not loved?” and thus repliedAn echo’s murmuring voice--“Thou art not loved!”
Words in this poem
- cloudless a.
- Without a cloud; clear; bright.
- gelid a.
- Cold; very cold; frozen. [L. gelidus, fr. gelun frost, cold. See Cold, and cf. Congeal, Gelatin, Jelly.]
- scorching a.
- Burning; parching or shriveling with heat.
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- lorn a.
- Lost; undone; ruined. [Strong p. p. of Lose. See Lose, Forlorn.]
- fruitless a.
- Lacking, or not bearing, fruit; barren; destitute of offspring; as, a fruitless tree or shrub; a fruitless marriage.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 70: High in the glowing heavens, with cloudless beam 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 70: High in the glowing heavens, with cloudless beam, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/sonnet-70-high-in-the-glowing-heavens-with-cloudless-beam.html, id L13431.
Form and metre
Sonnet 70: High in the glowing heavens, with cloudless beam is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABABCDCDBB-EE- beamA · reignB · streamA · plainB · shadeC · rayD · gladeC · layD · swainB · painB · roved · criedE · repliedE · loved
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 |
|---|---|---|
| High in the glowing heavens, with cloudless beam, | 11 | ···/˘/˘·/˘· |
| The sun had reach’d the zenith of his reign, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And for the living fount, the gelid stream, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Each flock forsook the herbage of the plain: | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Midst the dark foliage of the forest shade, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The birds had shelter’d from the scorching ray; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Hush’d were their melodies--and grove and glade | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Resounded but the shrill cicada’s lay: | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| When, through the grassy vale, a love-lorn swain, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To seek the maid who but despised his pain, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Breathing vain sighs of fruitless passion, roved: | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| “Why pine for her,” the slighted wanderer cried, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| “By whom thou art not loved?” and thus replied | 10 | ········˘/ |
| An echo’s murmuring voice--“Thou art not loved!” | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
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