The Bell at Sea
When the tide’s billowy swellHad reach’d its height,Then toll’d the rock’s lone bellSternly by night.
Far over cliff and surgeSwept the deep sound,Making each wild wind’s dirgeStill more profound.
Yet that funereal toneThe sailor bless’d,Steering through darkness onWith fearless breast.
E’en so may we, that floatOn life’s wide sea,Welcome each warning note,Stern though it be!
Words in this poem
- billowy a.
- Of or pertaining to billows; swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- sternly adv.
- In a stern manner.
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bell at Sea 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, The Bell at Sea, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-bell-at-sea.html, id L19549.
Form and metre
The Bell at Sea is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is dactylic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in dactylic dimeter.
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 ABAB swellA · heightB · bellA · nightB
- 2 ABAB surgeA · soundB · dirgeA · profoundB
- 3 -A-A tone · bless'dA · on · breastA
- 4 ABAB floatA · seaB · noteA · beB
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 dactylic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the tide’s billowy swell | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Had reach’d its height, | 4 | ···· |
| Then toll’d the rock’s lone bell | 6 | ······ |
| Sternly by night. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Far over cliff and surge | 6 | ······ |
| Swept the deep sound, | 4 | ···· |
| Making each wild wind’s dirge | 6 | /˘···· |
| Still more profound. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Yet that funereal tone | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| The sailor bless’d, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Steering through darkness on | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| With fearless breast. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| E’en so may we, that float | 6 | ······ |
| On life’s wide sea, | 4 | ···· |
| Welcome each warning note, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Stern though it be! | 4 | ···· |
Notes from the edition 1
Notes from The Poems of Felicia Hemans (Project Gutenberg #66785), largely Mrs Hemans's own.
- Stanza 4, line 4 It may be scarcely necessary to remind the reader, that the stealing of this bell by a Pirate forms the subject of Southey’s spirited ballad, “The Inchcape Rock.”
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