To Mr Edwards, the Harper of Conway
Minstrel! whose gifted hand can bringLife, rapture, soul, from every string;And wake, like bards of former time,The spirit of the harp sublime;--Oh! still prolong the varying strain!Oh! touch th’ enchanted chords again!
Thine is the charm, suspending care,The heavenly swell, the dying close,The cadence melting into air,That lulls each passion to repose;While transport, lost in silence near,Breathes all her language in a tear.
Exult, O Cambria!--now no moreWith sighs thy slaughter’d bards deplore:What though Plinlimmon’s misty browAnd Mona’s woods be silent now,Yet can thy Conway boast a strainUnrivall’d in thy proudest reign.
For Genius, with divine control,Wakes the bold chord neglected long,And pours Expression’s glowing soulO’er the wild Harp, renown’d in song;And Inspiration, hovering round,Swells the full energies of sound.
Now Grandeur, pealing in the tone,Could rouse the warrior’s kindling fire,And now, ’tis like the breeze’s moan,That murmurs o’er th’ Eolian lyre:As if some sylph, with viewless wing,Were sighing o’er the magic string.
Long, long, fair Conway! boast the skillThat soothes, inspires, commands, at will!And oh! while rapture hails the lay,Far distant be the closing day,When Genius, Taste, again shall weep,And Cambria’s Harp lie hush’d in sleep!
Words in this poem
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- cambria n.
- The ancient Latin name of Wales. It is used by modern poets.
- deplore v. t.
- To feel or to express deep and poignant grief for; to bewail; to lament; to mourn; to sorrow over. [L. deplorare; de- + plorare to cry out, wail, lament; prob. akin to pluere to rain, and to E. flow: cf. F. déplorer. Cf. Flow.]
- mona n.
- A small, handsome, long-tailed West American monkey (Cercopithecus mona). The body is dark olive, with a spot of white on the haunches. [CF. Sp. & Pg. mona, fem. of mono a monkey, ape.]
- sylph n.
- An imaginary being inhabiting the air; a fairy.
- viewless a.
- Not perceivable by the eye; invisible; unseen.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Mr Edwards, the Harper of Conway 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, To Mr Edwards, the Harper of Conway, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/to-mr-edwards-the-harper-of-conway.html, id L13426.
Form and metre
To Mr Edwards, the Harper of Conway is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCC bringA · stringA · timeB · sublimeB · strainC · againC
- 2 ABABAA careA · closeB · airA · reposeB · nearA · tearA
- 3 AABBCC moreA · deploreA · browB · nowB · strainC · reignC
- 4 ABABCC controlA · longB · soulA · songB · roundC · soundC
- 5 ABABCC toneA · fireB · moanA · lyreB · wingC · stringC
- 6 AABBCC skillA · willA · layB · dayB · weepC · sleepC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Minstrel! whose gifted hand can bring | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Life, rapture, soul, from every string; | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| And wake, like bards of former time, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The spirit of the harp sublime;-- | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Oh! still prolong the varying strain! | 9 | ··˘/·/˘˘· |
| Oh! touch th’ enchanted chords again! | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Thine is the charm, suspending care, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The heavenly swell, the dying close, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| The cadence melting into air, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| That lulls each passion to repose; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| While transport, lost in silence near, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Breathes all her language in a tear. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Exult, O Cambria!--now no more | 9 | ˘/·/˘˘··· |
| With sighs thy slaughter’d bards deplore: | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| What though Plinlimmon’s misty brow | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And Mona’s woods be silent now, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Yet can thy Conway boast a strain | 8 | ···/···· |
| Unrivall’d in thy proudest reign. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For Genius, with divine control, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Wakes the bold chord neglected long, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And pours Expression’s glowing soul | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| O’er the wild Harp, renown’d in song; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And Inspiration, hovering round, | 9 | ··˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Swells the full energies of sound. | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Now Grandeur, pealing in the tone, | 8 | ·˘//˘··· |
| Could rouse the warrior’s kindling fire, | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| And now, ’tis like the breeze’s moan, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That murmurs o’er th’ Eolian lyre: | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘· |
| As if some sylph, with viewless wing, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Were sighing o’er the magic string. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Long, long, fair Conway! boast the skill | 8 | ···/···· |
| That soothes, inspires, commands, at will! | 8 | ··˘/˘/·· |
| And oh! while rapture hails the lay, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Far distant be the closing day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When Genius, Taste, again shall weep, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And Cambria’s Harp lie hush’d in sleep! | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
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.