Captivity
Caged in old woods, whose reverend echoes wakeWhen the hern screams along the distant lake,Her little heart oft flutters to be free,Oft sighs to turn the unrelenting key.In vain! the nurse that rusted relic wears,Nor mov’d by gold—nor to be mov’d by tears;And terraced walls their black reflection throwOn the green-mantled moat that sleeps below.
Words in this poem
- caged a.
- Confined in, or as in, a cage; like a cage or prison.
- reverend a.
- Worthy of reverence; entitled to respect mingled with fear and affection; venerable. [F. révérend, L. reverendus, fr. revereri. See Revere.]
- hern n.
- A heron; esp., the common European heron.
- unrelenting a.
- Not relenting; unyielding; rigid; hard; stern; cruel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Captivity is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #13586; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Rogers, Captivity, in Poems (1792–1834), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13586, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rogers-poems/captivity.html, id L09746.
Form and metre
Captivity is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDD wakeA · lakeA · freeB · keyB · wearsC · tearsC · throwD · belowD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Caged in old woods, whose reverend echoes wake | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| When the hern screams along the distant lake, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Her little heart oft flutters to be free, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Oft sighs to turn the unrelenting key. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| In vain! the nurse that rusted relic wears, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Nor mov’d by gold—nor to be mov’d by tears; | 10 | ·········· |
| And terraced walls their black reflection throw | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| On the green-mantled moat that sleeps below. | 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.