From the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
Unhappy White! while life was in its spring,And thy young muse just waved her joyous wing,The spoiler came; and all thy promise fairHas sought the grave, to sleep for ever there.Oh! what a noble heart was here undone,When science self destroy'd her favourite son!Yes! she too much indulged thy fond pursuit,She sow'd the seeds, but death has reap'd the fruit.'Twas thine own genius gave the final blow,And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low.So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain,No more through rolling clouds to soar again,View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel,He nursed the pinion which impell'd the steel;While the same plumage that had warm'd his nestDrank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast.
Words in this poem
- spoiler n.
- One who spoils; a plunderer; a pillager; a robber; a despoiler.
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- keener n.
- A professional mourner who wails at a funeral. [Ireland]
- pinion n.
- A moth of the genus Lithophane, as L. antennata, whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples.
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers 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, From the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/from-the-english-bards-and-scotch-reviewers.html, id L10151.
Form and metre
From the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII springA · wingA · fairB · thereB · undoneC · sonC · pursuitD · fruitD · blowE · lowE · plainF · againF · dartG · heartG · feelH · steelH · nestI · breastI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Unhappy White! while life was in its spring, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| And thy young muse just waved her joyous wing, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The spoiler came; and all thy promise fair | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Has sought the grave, to sleep for ever there. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Oh! what a noble heart was here undone, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| When science self destroy'd her favourite son! | 11 | ·/˘·˘/····· |
| Yes! she too much indulged thy fond pursuit, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| She sow'd the seeds, but death has reap'd the fruit. | 10 | ·········· |
| 'Twas thine own genius gave the final blow, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low. | 10 | ·········· |
| So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| No more through rolling clouds to soar again, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart. | 10 | ·········· |
| Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| He nursed the pinion which impell'd the steel; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| While the same plumage that had warm'd his nest | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast. | 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.