To Stella
Not the soft sighs of vernal gales,The fragrance of the flow'ry vales,The murmurs of the crystal rill,The vocal grove, the verdant hill;Not all their charms, though all unite,Can touch my bosom with delight.
Not all the gems on India's shore,Not all Peru's unbounded store,Not all the power, nor all the fame,That heroes, kings, or poets claim;Nor knowledge, which the learn'd approve;To form one wish my soul can move.
Yet nature's charms allure my eyes,And knowledge, wealth, and fame I prize;Fame, wealth, and knowledge I obtain,Nor seek I nature's charms in vain;In lovely Stella all combine;And, lovely Stella! thou art mine.
Words in this poem
- rill n.
- A very small brook; a streamlet. [Cf. LG. rille a small channel or brook, a furrow, a chamfer, OE. rigol a small brook, F. rigole a trench or furrow for water, W. rhill a row, rhigol a little di]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Stella is in the public domain. This text is taken from Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 (The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes, 1825), Project Gutenberg ebook #10835; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Johnson, To Stella, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/to-stella.html, id L27145.
Form and metre
To Stella is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 galesA · valesA · rillB · hillB · uniteC · delightC
- 2 AABBCC shoreA · storeA · fameB · claimB · approveC · moveC
- 3 AABBCC eyesA · prizeA · obtainB · vainB · combineC · mineC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not the soft sighs of vernal gales, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The fragrance of the flow'ry vales, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The murmurs of the crystal rill, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The vocal grove, the verdant hill; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Not all their charms, though all unite, | 8 | ······/· |
| Can touch my bosom with delight. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Not all the gems on India's shore, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Not all Peru's unbounded store, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Not all the power, nor all the fame, | 8 | ···/···· |
| That heroes, kings, or poets claim; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Nor knowledge, which the learn'd approve; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| To form one wish my soul can move. | 8 | ········ |
| Yet nature's charms allure my eyes, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And knowledge, wealth, and fame I prize; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Fame, wealth, and knowledge I obtain, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Nor seek I nature's charms in vain; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In lovely Stella all combine; | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And, lovely Stella! thou art mine. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
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.