Moon
Thee too, modest tressèd maid,When thy fallen stars appear;When in lawn of fire array’dSov’reign of yon powder’d sphere;To thee I chant at close of day,Beneath, O maiden Moon! thy ray.
Throned in sapphired ring supreme,Pregnant with celestial juice,On silver wing thy diamond streamGives what summer hours produce;While view’d impearl’d earth’s rich inlay,Beneath, O maiden Moon! thy ray.
Glad, pale Cynthian wine I sip,Breathed the flow’ry leaves among;Draughts delicious wet my lip;Drown’d in nectar drunk my song;While tuned to Philomel the lay,Beneath, O maiden Moon! thy ray.
Dew, that od’rous ointment yields,Sweets, that western winds disclose,Bathing spring’s more purpled fields,Soft’s the band that winds the rose;While o’er thy myrtled lawns I strayBeneath, O maiden Moon! thy ray.
About this text
Moon is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; 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 Rowe, Moon, in Poems (1750–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-henry-rowe/moon.html, id L16171.
Form and metre
Moon is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 ABABCC maidA · appearB · array'dA · sphereB · dayC · rayC
- 2 ABABCC supremeA · juiceB · streamA · produceB · inlayC · rayC
- 3 A-A-BB sipA · among · lipA · song · layB · rayB
- 4 ABABCC yieldsA · discloseB · fieldsA · roseB · strayC · rayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thee too, modest tressèd maid, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| When thy fallen stars appear; | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| When in lawn of fire array’d | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| Sov’reign of yon powder’d sphere; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| To thee I chant at close of day, | 8 | ········ |
| Beneath, O maiden Moon! thy ray. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Throned in sapphired ring supreme, | 8 | ··/˘˘·˘/ |
| Pregnant with celestial juice, | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| On silver wing thy diamond stream | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Gives what summer hours produce; | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| While view’d impearl’d earth’s rich inlay, | 8 | ······/· |
| Beneath, O maiden Moon! thy ray. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Glad, pale Cynthian wine I sip, | 7 | ······· |
| Breathed the flow’ry leaves among; | 8 | ·˘······ |
| Draughts delicious wet my lip; | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Drown’d in nectar drunk my song; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| While tuned to Philomel the lay, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Beneath, O maiden Moon! thy ray. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Dew, that od’rous ointment yields, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sweets, that western winds disclose, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Bathing spring’s more purpled fields, | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| Soft’s the band that winds the rose; | 7 | ······· |
| While o’er thy myrtled lawns I stray | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Beneath, O maiden Moon! thy ray. | 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.