Verses
When pride and envy, and the scornOf wealth my heart with gall imbued,I thought how pleasant were the mornOf silence, in the solitude;To hear the forest bee on wing;Or by the stream, or woodland spring,To lie and muse alone--alone,While the tinkling waters moan,Or such wild sounds arise, as say,Man and noise are far away.
Now, surely, thought I, there's enowTo fill life's dusty way;And who will miss a poet's feet,Or wonder where he stray:So to the woods and wastes I'll go,And I will build an osier bower,And sweetly there to me shall flowThe meditative hour.
And when the Autumn's withering hand,Shall strew with leaves the sylvan land,I'll to the forest caverns hie:And in the dark and stormy nightsI'll listen to the shrieking sprites,Who, in the wintry wolds and floods,Keep jubilee, and shred the woods;Or, as it drifted soft and slow,Hurl in ten thousand shapes the snow.
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- 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.]
- enow
- A form of Enough.
- 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,]
- withering a.
- Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Verses 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, Verses, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/verses.html, id L10061.
Form and metre
Verses is 27 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% 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 ABABCCDDEE scornA · imbuedB · mornA · solitudeB · wingC · springC · aloneD · moanD · sayE · awayE
- 2 -A-ABCBC enow · wayA · feet · strayA · goB · bowerC · flowB · hourC
- 3 AA-----BB handA · landA · hie · nights · sprites · floods · woods · slowB · snowB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When pride and envy, and the scorn | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of wealth my heart with gall imbued, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| I thought how pleasant were the morn | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of silence, in the solitude; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To hear the forest bee on wing; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or by the stream, or woodland spring, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| To lie and muse alone--alone, | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| While the tinkling waters moan, | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Or such wild sounds arise, as say, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Man and noise are far away. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Now, surely, thought I, there's enow | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| To fill life's dusty way; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And who will miss a poet's feet, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or wonder where he stray: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| So to the woods and wastes I'll go, | 8 | ········ |
| And I will build an osier bower, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And sweetly there to me shall flow | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The meditative hour. | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| And when the Autumn's withering hand, | 9 | ···/˘/˘˘· |
| Shall strew with leaves the sylvan land, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I'll to the forest caverns hie: | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And in the dark and stormy nights | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I'll listen to the shrieking sprites, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Who, in the wintry wolds and floods, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Keep jubilee, and shred the woods; | 9 | ·/˘···˘·· |
| Or, as it drifted soft and slow, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Hurl in ten thousand shapes the snow. | 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.