Stanzas Supposed to Have Been Written at the Grave of Henry Kirke White
Ye gentlest gales! oh, hither waft,On airy undulating sweeps,Your frequent sighs so passing soft,Where he, the youthful Poet, sleeps!He breathed the purest tenderest sigh,The sigh of sensibility.
And thou shalt lie, his favourite flower,Pale primrose, on his grave reclined;Sweet emblem of his fleeting hour,And of his pure, his spotless mind!Like thee he sprung in lowly vale;And felt, like thee, the trying gale.
Nor hence thy pensive eye seclude,O thou, the fragrant rosemary,Where he, "in marble solitude,So peaceful and so deep" doth lie!His harp prophetic sung to theeIn notes of sweetest minstrelsy.
Ye falling dews, Oh! ever leaveYour crystal drops these flowers to steep:At earliest morn, at latest eve,Oh let them for their poet weep!For tears bedew'd his gentle eye,The tears of heavenly sympathy.
Thou western Sun, effuse thy beams;for he was wont to pace the glade,To watch in pale uncertain gleams,The crimson-zoned horizon fade--Thy last, they setting radiance pour,Where he is set to rise no more.
Words in this poem
- waft v. t.
- To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- reclined a.
- Falling or turned downward; reclinate.
- 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.]
- seclude v. t.
- To shut up apart from others; to withdraw into, or place in, solitude; to separate from society or intercourse with others. [L. secludere, seclusum pref. se- aside + claudere to shut. See Close, v. t.]
- minstrelsy n.
- The arts and occupation of minstrels; the singing and playing of a minstrel.
- 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.]
- effuse a.
- Poured out freely; profuse. [L. effusus, p. p. of effundere to pour out; ex + fundere to pour. See Fuse to melt.]
- 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 ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stanzas Supposed to Have Been Written at the Grave of Henry Kirke White 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, Stanzas Supposed to Have Been Written at the Grave of Henry Kirke White, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/stanzas-supposed-to-have-been-written-at-the-grave-of-henry-kirke-white.html, id L18574.
Form and metre
Stanzas Supposed to Have Been Written at the Grave of Henry Kirke White is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABABCC, in 2 of the 5 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB-- waftA · sweepsB · softA · sleepsB · sigh · sensibility
- 2 ABABCC flowerA · reclinedB · hourA · mindB · valeC · galeC
- 3 A-ABB- secludeA · rosemary · solitudeA · lieB · theeB · minstrelsy
- 4 ABAB-- leaveA · steepB · eveA · weepB · eye · sympathy
- 5 ABABCC beamsA · gladeB · gleamsA · fadeB · pourC · moreC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ye gentlest gales! oh, hither waft, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| On airy undulating sweeps, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘· |
| Your frequent sighs so passing soft, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Where he, the youthful Poet, sleeps! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| He breathed the purest tenderest sigh, | 10 | ··˘·/˘/˘˘· |
| The sigh of sensibility. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| And thou shalt lie, his favourite flower, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Pale primrose, on his grave reclined; | 9 | ·/····˘/˘ |
| Sweet emblem of his fleeting hour, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And of his pure, his spotless mind! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like thee he sprung in lowly vale; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And felt, like thee, the trying gale. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Nor hence thy pensive eye seclude, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| O thou, the fragrant rosemary, | 8 | ···/˘/·˘ |
| Where he, "in marble solitude, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| So peaceful and so deep" doth lie! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| His harp prophetic sung to thee | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| In notes of sweetest minstrelsy. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Ye falling dews, Oh! ever leave | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Your crystal drops these flowers to steep: | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| At earliest morn, at latest eve, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| Oh let them for their poet weep! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For tears bedew'd his gentle eye, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The tears of heavenly sympathy. | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Thou western Sun, effuse thy beams; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| for he was wont to pace the glade, | 8 | ········ |
| To watch in pale uncertain gleams, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The crimson-zoned horizon fade-- | 9 | ·/˘·˘˘/˘· |
| Thy last, they setting radiance pour, | 9 | ···/˘/˘˘· |
| Where he is set to rise no more. | 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.