Sonnet—The Poet to Nature
I have no secrets from thee, lyre sublime,My lyre whereof I make my melody.I sing one way like the west wind through thee,With my whole heart, and hear thy sweet strings chime.
But thou, who soundest in my tune and rhyme,Hast tones I wake not, in thy land and sea,Loveliness not for me, secrets from me,Thoughts for another, and another time.
And as, the west wind passed, the south wind altersHis intimate sweet things, his hues of noon,The voices of his waves, sound of his pine,
The meanings of his lost heart,--this thought faltersIn my short song--'Another bard shall tuneThee, my one Lyre, to other songs than mine.'
Words in this poem
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet—The Poet to Nature is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1186; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alice Meynell, Sonnet—The Poet to Nature, in Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1186, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meynell-poems/sonnet-the-poet-to-nature.html, id L12870.
Form and metre
Sonnet—The Poet to Nature is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is CDE, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 A-BA sublimeA · melody · theeB · chimeA
- 2 ABBA rhymeA · seaB · meB · timeA
- 3 CDE altersC · noonD · pineE
- 4 CDE faltersC · tuneD · mineE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I have no secrets from thee, lyre sublime, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| My lyre whereof I make my melody. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| I sing one way like the west wind through thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| With my whole heart, and hear thy sweet strings chime. | 10 | ·········· |
| But thou, who soundest in my tune and rhyme, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Hast tones I wake not, in thy land and sea, | 10 | ·········· |
| Loveliness not for me, secrets from me, | 10 | /˘˘···/˘·· |
| Thoughts for another, and another time. | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| And as, the west wind passed, the south wind alters | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| His intimate sweet things, his hues of noon, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| The voices of his waves, sound of his pine, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The meanings of his lost heart,--this thought falters | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| In my short song--'Another bard shall tune | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Thee, my one Lyre, to other songs than mine.' | 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.