The River Clwyd in North Wales
O Cambrian river! with slow music glidingBy pastoral hills, old woods, and ruin’d towers;Now midst thy reeds and golden willows hiding,Now gleaming forth by some rich bank of flowers;Long flow’d the current of my life’s clear hoursOnward with thine, whose voice yet haunts my dream,Tho’ time and change, and other mightier powers,Far from thy side have borne me. Thou, smooth stream!Art winding still thy sunny meads along,Murmuring to cottage and gray hall thy song,Low, sweet, unchanged. My being’s tide hath pass’dThrough rocks and storms; yet will I not complain,If, thus wrought free and pure from earthly stain,Brightly its waves may reach their parent-deep at last.
Words in this poem
- cambrian a.
- Of or pertaining to Cambria or Wales.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The River Clwyd in North Wales 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 River Clwyd in North Wales, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-river-clwyd-in-north-wales.html, id L19800.
Form and metre
The River Clwyd in North Wales is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBCDDEFFE. 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 ABABBCBCDDEFFE glidingA · towersB · hidingA · flowersB · hoursB · dreamC · powersB · streamC · alongD · songD · pass'dE · complainF · stainF · lastE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Cambrian river! with slow music gliding | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| By pastoral hills, old woods, and ruin’d towers; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘/ |
| Now midst thy reeds and golden willows hiding, | 11 | ·····/˘/·/˘ |
| Now gleaming forth by some rich bank of flowers; | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Long flow’d the current of my life’s clear hours | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Onward with thine, whose voice yet haunts my dream, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Tho’ time and change, and other mightier powers, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘/ |
| Far from thy side have borne me. Thou, smooth stream! | 10 | ·········· |
| Art winding still thy sunny meads along, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Murmuring to cottage and gray hall thy song, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Low, sweet, unchanged. My being’s tide hath pass’d | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Through rocks and storms; yet will I not complain, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| If, thus wrought free and pure from earthly stain, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Brightly its waves may reach their parent-deep at last. | 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.