To the River Avon
Avon! why runnest thou away so fast?Rest thee before that Chancel where reposeThe bones of him whose spirit moves the world.I have beheld thy birthplace, I have seenThy tiny ripples where they play amidThe golden cups and ever-waving blades.I have seen mighty rivers, I have seenPadus, recovered from his fiery wound,And Tiber, prouder than them all to bearUpon his tawny bosom men who crushtThe world they trod on, heeding not the criesOf culprit kings and nations many-tongued.What are to me these rivers, once adorn'dWith crowns they would not wear but swept away?Worthier art thou of worship, and I bendMy knees upon thy bank, and call thy name,And hear, or think I hear, thy voice reply.
Words in this poem
- birthplace n.
- The town, city, or country, where a person is born; place of origin or birth, in its more general sense.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- culprit n.
- One accused of, or ar An author is in the condition of a culprit; the public are his judges. Prior. [Prob. corrupted for culpate, fr. Law Latin culpatus the accused, p. p. of L. culpare to blame. See Culpable.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the River Avon is in the public domain. This text is taken from Imaginary Conversations and Poems: A Selection, Project Gutenberg ebook #21628; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter Savage Landor, To the River Avon, in Imaginary Conversations and Poems (1795–1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21628, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/landor-poems/to-the-river-avon.html, id L12214.
Form and metre
To the River Avon is 17 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 53% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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 ---A--A---------- fast · repose · world · seenA · amid · blades · seenA · wound · bear · crusht · cries · tongued · adorn'd · away · bend · name · reply
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Avon! why runnest thou away so fast? | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/·· |
| Rest thee before that Chancel where repose | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The bones of him whose spirit moves the world. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I have beheld thy birthplace, I have seen | 10 | ··˘/·/···· |
| Thy tiny ripples where they play amid | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| The golden cups and ever-waving blades. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| I have seen mighty rivers, I have seen | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Padus, recovered from his fiery wound, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| And Tiber, prouder than them all to bear | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Upon his tawny bosom men who crusht | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The world they trod on, heeding not the cries | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of culprit kings and nations many-tongued. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| What are to me these rivers, once adorn'd | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| With crowns they would not wear but swept away? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Worthier art thou of worship, and I bend | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| My knees upon thy bank, and call thy name, | 10 | ·········· |
| And hear, or think I hear, thy voice reply. | 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.