To Fancy
Most delicate Ariel! submissive thing,Won by the mind's high magic to its hest--Invisible embassy, or secret guest,--Weighing the light air on a lighter wing;--Whether into the midnight moon, to bringIlluminate visions to the eye of rest,--Or rich romances from the florid West,--Or to the sea, for mystic whispering,--Still by thy charm'd allegiance to the will,The fruitful wishes prosper in the brain,As by the fingering of fairy skill,--Moonlight, and waters, and soft music's strain,Odors, and blooms, and my Miranda's smile,Making this dull world an enchanted isle.
Words in this poem
- hest n.
- Command; precept; injunction. See Behest. [AS. hs, fr. h to call, bid. See Hight, and cf. Behest.]
- prosper v. t.
- To favor; to render successful. [F. prospérer v. i., or L. prosperare, v. i., or L. prosperare, v. t., fr. prosper or prosperus. See Prosperous.]
- fingering n.
- The act or process of handling or touching with the fingers.
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Fancy is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hood, To Fancy, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/to-fancy.html, id L20053.
Form and metre
To Fancy is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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 ABBAABBACDCDEE thingA · hestB · guestB · wingA · bringA · restB · westB · whisperingA · willC · brainD · skillC · strainD · smileE · isleE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Most delicate Ariel! submissive thing, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/˘· |
| Won by the mind's high magic to its hest-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Invisible embassy, or secret guest,-- | 10 | ˘/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Weighing the light air on a lighter wing;-- | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Whether into the midnight moon, to bring | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Illuminate visions to the eye of rest,-- | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| Or rich romances from the florid West,-- | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Or to the sea, for mystic whispering,-- | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Still by thy charm'd allegiance to the will, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The fruitful wishes prosper in the brain, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| As by the fingering of fairy skill,-- | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Moonlight, and waters, and soft music's strain, | 10 | /··/˘··/˘· |
| Odors, and blooms, and my Miranda's smile, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| Making this dull world an enchanted isle. | 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.