Written on the Day That Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison
What though, for showing truth to flatter'd stateKind Hunt was shut in prison, yet has he,In his immortal spirit, been as freeAs the sky-searching lark, and as elate.Minion of grandeur! think you he did wait?Think you he nought but prison walls did see,Till, so unwilling, thou unturn'dst the key?Ah, no! far happier, nobler was his fate!In Spenser's halls he strayed, and bowers fair,Culling enchanted flowers; and he flewWith daring Milton through the fields of air:To regions of his own his genius trueTook happy flights. Who shall his fame impairWhen thou art dead, and all thy wretched crew?
Words in this poem
- elate a.
- Lifted up; raised; elevated. [L. elatus elevated, fig., elated, proud (the figure, perh., being borrowed from a prancing horse); e out + latus (used as p. p. of ferre to bear), for tlatus, a]
- culling
- The act of one who culls.
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- 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
Written on the Day That Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison 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, Written on the Day That Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison, in Poems (1817) (1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8209, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/keats-1817/written-on-the-day-that-mr-leigh-hunt-left-prison.html, id L20517.
Form and metre
Written on the Day That Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDCDCD stateA · heB · freeB · elateA · waitA · seeB · keyB · fateA · fairC · flewD · airC · trueD · impairC · crewD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What though, for showing truth to flatter'd state | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Kind Hunt was shut in prison, yet has he, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In his immortal spirit, been as free | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| As the sky-searching lark, and as elate. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Minion of grandeur! think you he did wait? | 10 | /˘·˘/····· |
| Think you he nought but prison walls did see, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Till, so unwilling, thou unturn'dst the key? | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Ah, no! far happier, nobler was his fate! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| In Spenser's halls he strayed, and bowers fair, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Culling enchanted flowers; and he flew | 10 | /˘˘/˘/˘··· |
| With daring Milton through the fields of air: | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| To regions of his own his genius true | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Took happy flights. Who shall his fame impair | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| When thou art dead, and all thy wretched crew? | 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.