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Elegy

Henry Kirke White (1785–1806) · 1803–1806

iambic pentameter · ABAB · 28 lines · from The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White

He sunk, the impetuous river roll'd along,The sullen wave betray'd his dying breath;And rising sad the rustling sedge among,The gale of evening touch'd the cords of death.

Nymph of the Trent! why didst thou not appearTo snatch the victim from thy felon wave!Alas! too late thou camest to embalm his bier,And deck with waterflags his early grave.

Triumphant, riding o'er its tumid prey,Rolls the red stream in sanguinary pride;While anxious crowds, in vain, expectant stay,And ask the swoln corse from the murdering tide.

The stealing tear-drop stagnates in the eye,The sudden sigh by friendship's bosom proved,I mark them rise--I mark the general sigh!Unhappy youth! and wert thou so beloved?

On thee, as lone I trace the Trent's green brink,When the dim twilight slumbers on the glade;On thee my thoughts shall dwell, nor Fancy shrinkTo hold mysterious converse with thy shade.

Of thee, as early, I, with vagrant feet,Hail the gray-sandal'd morn in Colwick's vale,Of thee my sylvan reed shall warble sweet,And wild-wood echoes shall repeat the tale.

And, oh! ye nymphs of Pæon! who presideO'er running rill and salutary stream.Guard ye in future well the halcyon tideFrom the rude death-shriek and the dying scream.

Words in this poem

sullen a.: Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
didst: , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
bier n.: A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave. [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barr]
swoln: Contraction of Swollen, p. p.
corse n.: A living body or its bulk. [OF. cors, F. corps. See Corpse.]
lone n.: A lane. See Loanin.
brink n.: The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
glade n.: An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
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,]
dwell v. i.: To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
morn n.: The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
vale n.: A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
warble v. t.: To sing in a trilling, quavering, or vibratory manner; to modulate with turns or variations; to trill; as, certain birds are remarkable for warbling their songs. [OE. werbelen, OF. werbler; of Teutonic origin; cf. G. wirbeln to turn, to warble, D. wervelen, akin to E. whirl. See Whirl.]
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]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Elegy is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Henry Kirk White : With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas, Project Gutenberg ebook #7149; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Henry Kirke White, Elegy, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/elegy.html, id L10066.

Form and metre

Elegy is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

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 along^A · breath^B · among^A · death^B
2 ABAB appear^A · wave^B · bier^A · grave^B
3 ABAB prey^A · pride^B · stay^A · tide^B
4 ABAB eye^A · proved^B · sigh^A · beloved^B
5 ABAB brink^A · glade^B · shrink^A · shade^B
6 ABAB feet^A · vale^B · sweet^A · tale^B
7 ABAB preside^A · stream^B · tide^A · scream^B

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
He sunk, the impetuous river roll'd along,	11	···˘/˘/˘·˘/
The sullen wave betray'd his dying breath;	10	·/˘·˘/·/˘·
And rising sad the rustling sedge among,	10	·/˘··/˘···
The gale of evening touch'd the cords of death.	10	···/˘·····
Nymph of the Trent! why didst thou not appear	10	········˘/
To snatch the victim from thy felon wave!	10	···/˘··/˘·
Alas! too late thou camest to embalm his bier,	12	˘/······˘/··
And deck with waterflags his early grave.	10	·······/˘·
Triumphant, riding o'er its tumid prey,	10	˘/˘/˘··/˘·
Rolls the red stream in sanguinary pride;	10	·····/˘˘˘·
While anxious crowds, in vain, expectant stay,	10	·/˘···˘/˘·
And ask the swoln corse from the murdering tide.	10	·······/˘·
The stealing tear-drop stagnates in the eye,	10	·/˘··/····
The sudden sigh by friendship's bosom proved,	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
I mark them rise--I mark the general sigh!	10	·······/˘·
Unhappy youth! and wert thou so beloved?	10	˘/˘·····˘/
On thee, as lone I trace the Trent's green brink,	10	··········
When the dim twilight slumbers on the glade;	10	···/·/˘···
On thee my thoughts shall dwell, nor Fancy shrink	10	·······/˘·
To hold mysterious converse with thy shade.	10	··˘/˘/˘···
Of thee, as early, I, with vagrant feet,	10	···/˘··/˘·
Hail the gray-sandal'd morn in Colwick's vale,	10	··········
Of thee my sylvan reed shall warble sweet,	10	···/˘··/˘·
And wild-wood echoes shall repeat the tale.	10	···/˘·˘/··
And, oh! ye nymphs of Pæon! who preside	9	·······˘/
O'er running rill and salutary stream.	10	·/˘··/˘·˘·
Guard ye in future well the halcyon tide	10	···/˘··/˘·
From the rude death-shriek and the dying scream.	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.

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