Book III
Now had you drank cold Tanais' wave,Whose streams the drear vale slowly lave,A barbarous Scythian's Bride,Your Lover braves the winds severe,That pierce his aching side.
O listen to the howling groves,That labour o'er your proud alcoves,And hear the jarring door!Mark how the star, at eve that rose,Has brightly glaz'd the settled snows,While every leaf is hoar!
Gay Venus hates this cold disdain;--Cease then its rigors to maintain,That sprightly joys impede,Lest the strain'd cord, with which you bindThe freedom of my amorous mind,In rapid whirl recede!
Born of a jocund Tuscan Sire,Did he transmit his ardent fireThat, like Ulysses' Queen,His beauteous Daughter still should proveRelentless to the sighs of Love,With frozen heart and mien?--
If nor blue cheek of shivering Swain,Nor yet his richest gifts obtainYour smile, and soft'ning brow;Nor if a faithless Husband's rageFor a gay Syren of the stage,And broken nuptial vow;
If weak e'en Jealousy should proveTo bend your heart to truer love,Yet pity these my pains,O Nymph, than oaks more hard, and fierceAs snakes, that Afric's thickets pierce,Those terrors of the plains!
When heavy falls the pattering shower,And streaming spouts their torrents pourUpon my shrinking head,Not always shall wild Love commandThese limbs obsequiously to standBeneath your dropping shed.
Words in this poem
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- lave v. t.
- To lade, dip, or pour out. [OE. laven. See Lavish.]
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- jarring a.
- Shaking; disturbing; discordant. [See Jar.]
- hoar v. t.
- To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
- jocund
- Merry; cheerful; gay; airy; lively; sportive. [L. jocundus, jucundus, orig., helpful, fr. juvare to help. See Aid.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- relentless a.
- Unmoved by appeals for sympathy or forgiveness; insensible to the distresses of others; destitute of tenderness; unrelenting; unyielding; unpitying; as, a prey to relentless despotism.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- 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
Book III is in the public domain. This text is taken from Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace, Project Gutenberg ebook #27663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Anna Seward, Book III, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/book-iii.html, id L09838.
Form and metre
Book III is 41 lines in 7 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 5 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 24% 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 AAB-B waveA · laveA · brideB · severe · sideB
- 2 AABCCB grovesA · alcovesA · doorB · roseC · snowsC · hoarB
- 3 AABCCB disdainA · maintainA · impedeB · bindC · mindC · recedeB
- 4 AABCCB sireA · fireA · queenB · proveC · loveC · mienB
- 5 AABCCB swainA · obtainA · browB · rageC · stageC · vowB
- 6 AABCCB proveA · loveA · painsB · fierceC · pierceC · plainsB
- 7 --ABBA shower · pour · headA · commandB · standB · shedA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now had you drank cold Tanais' wave, | 8 | ········ |
| Whose streams the drear vale slowly lave, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A barbarous Scythian's Bride, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘· |
| Your Lover braves the winds severe, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| That pierce his aching side. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O listen to the howling groves, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That labour o'er your proud alcoves, | 8 | ·/˘···/· |
| And hear the jarring door! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Mark how the star, at eve that rose, | 8 | ········ |
| Has brightly glaz'd the settled snows, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| While every leaf is hoar! | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Gay Venus hates this cold disdain;-- | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Cease then its rigors to maintain, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| That sprightly joys impede, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Lest the strain'd cord, with which you bind | 8 | ········ |
| The freedom of my amorous mind, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| In rapid whirl recede! | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Born of a jocund Tuscan Sire, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Did he transmit his ardent fire | 9 | ··˘/·/˘/˘ |
| That, like Ulysses' Queen, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| His beauteous Daughter still should prove | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| Relentless to the sighs of Love, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| With frozen heart and mien?-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| If nor blue cheek of shivering Swain, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Nor yet his richest gifts obtain | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Your smile, and soft'ning brow; | 6 | ······ |
| Nor if a faithless Husband's rage | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| For a gay Syren of the stage, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And broken nuptial vow; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| If weak e'en Jealousy should prove | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| To bend your heart to truer love, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Yet pity these my pains, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| O Nymph, than oaks more hard, and fierce | 8 | ········ |
| As snakes, that Afric's thickets pierce, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Those terrors of the plains! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| When heavy falls the pattering shower, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| And streaming spouts their torrents pour | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Upon my shrinking head, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Not always shall wild Love command | 8 | ·/····˘/ |
| These limbs obsequiously to stand | 9 | ··˘/˘˘˘·· |
| Beneath your dropping shed. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.