To the Same, Released
How flows thy being now?--like some glad hymnOne strain of solemn rapture?--doth thine eyeWander through tears of voiceless feeling dimO’er the crown’d Alps, that, midst the upper sky,Sleep in the sunlight of thine Italy?Or is thy gaze of reverent love profoundUnto these dear, parental faces bound,Which, with their silvery hair, so oft glanced by,Haunting thy prison-dreams? Where’er thou art,Blessings be shed upon thine inmost heart!Joy, from kind looks, blue skies, and flowery sod,For that pure voice of thoughtful wisdom sentForth from thy cell, in sweetness eloquentOf love to man, and quenchless trust in God!
Words in this poem
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
- parental a.
- Of or pertaining to a parent or to parents; as, parental authority; parental obligations. [L. parentalis.]
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
- quenchless a.
- Incapable of being quenched; inextinguishable; as, quenchless fire or fury.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Same, Released 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 the Same, Released, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/to-the-same-released.html, id L19818.
Form and metre
To the Same, Released is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 ABAB-CCBDDEFFE hymnA · eyeB · dimA · skyB · italy · profoundC · boundC · byB · artD · heartD · sodE · sentF · eloquentF · godE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How flows thy being now?--like some glad hymn | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| One strain of solemn rapture?--doth thine eye | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Wander through tears of voiceless feeling dim | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| O’er the crown’d Alps, that, midst the upper sky, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sleep in the sunlight of thine Italy? | 10 | ···/···/˘˘ |
| Or is thy gaze of reverent love profound | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Unto these dear, parental faces bound, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Which, with their silvery hair, so oft glanced by, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Haunting thy prison-dreams? Where’er thou art, | 11 | /˘·/˘·˘˘/·· |
| Blessings be shed upon thine inmost heart! | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Joy, from kind looks, blue skies, and flowery sod, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For that pure voice of thoughtful wisdom sent | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Forth from thy cell, in sweetness eloquent | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Of love to man, and quenchless trust in God! | 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.