How many bards gild the lapses of time!
How many bards gild the lapses of time!A few of them have ever been the foodOf my delighted fancy,--I could broodOver their beauties, earthly, or sublime:And often, when I sit me down to rhyme,These will in throngs before my mind intrude:But no confusion, no disturbance rudeDo they occasion; 'tis a pleasing chime.So the unnumber'd sounds that evening store;The songs of birds--the whisp'ring of the leaves--The voice of waters--the great bell that heavesWith solemn sound,--and thousand others more,That distance of recognizance bereaves,Make pleasing music, and not wild uproar.
Words in this poem
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
- heaves n.
- A disease of horses, characterized by difficult breathing, with heaving of the flank, wheezing, flatulency, and a peculiar cough; broken wind.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
How many bards gild the lapses of time! is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems 1817, Project Gutenberg ebook #8209; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Keats, How many bards gild the lapses of time!, in Poems (1817) (1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8209, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/keats-1817/how-many-bards-gild-the-lapses-of-time.html, id L20518.
Form and metre
How many bards gild the lapses of time! is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDDCDC timeA · foodB · broodB · sublimeA · rhymeA · intrudeB · rudeB · chimeA · storeC · leavesD · heavesD · moreC · bereavesD · uproarC
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 many bards gild the lapses of time! | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| A few of them have ever been the food | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of my delighted fancy,--I could brood | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Over their beauties, earthly, or sublime: | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And often, when I sit me down to rhyme, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| These will in throngs before my mind intrude: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But no confusion, no disturbance rude | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Do they occasion; 'tis a pleasing chime. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| So the unnumber'd sounds that evening store; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The songs of birds--the whisp'ring of the leaves-- | 10 | ·········· |
| The voice of waters--the great bell that heaves | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With solemn sound,--and thousand others more, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| That distance of recognizance bereaves, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Make pleasing music, and not wild uproar. | 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.