December 1790
Remorseless WINTER! in thy iron reignComes the loud whirlwind, on thy pinion borne;The long long night,--the tardy, leaden morn;The grey frost, riv'ling lane, and hill, and plain;Chill silent snows, and heavy, pattering rain.These are thy known allies;--and Life forlorn,Yet patient, droops, nor breathes repinings vain;But now, Usurper, thou hast madly tornFrom Summer's hand his stores of angry sway;His rattling thunders with thy winds unite,On thy pale snows those livid lightnings play,That pour their deathful splendors o'er his night,To poise the pleasures of his golden day,Soft gales, blue skies, and long-protracted light.
Words in this poem
- remorseless a.
- Being without remorse; having no pity; hence, destitute of sensibility; cruel; insensible to distress; merciless.
- pinion n.
- A moth of the genus Lithophane, as L. antennata, whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- usurper n.
- One who usurps; especially, one who seizes illegally on sovereign power; as, the usurper of a throne, of power, or of the rights of a patron.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- madly adv.
- In a mad manner; without reason or understanding; wildly. [From Mad, a.]
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- deathful a.
- Full of death or slaughter; murderous; destructive; bloody.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
December 1790 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, December 1790, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/december-1790.html, id L09822.
Form and metre
December 1790 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG reignA · borneB · mornA · plainB · rainC · forlornD · vainC · tornD · swayE · uniteF · playE · nightF · dayG · lightG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Remorseless WINTER! in thy iron reign | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Comes the loud whirlwind, on thy pinion borne; | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| The long long night,--the tardy, leaden morn; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The grey frost, riv'ling lane, and hill, and plain; | 10 | ·········· |
| Chill silent snows, and heavy, pattering rain. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| These are thy known allies;--and Life forlorn, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Yet patient, droops, nor breathes repinings vain; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But now, Usurper, thou hast madly torn | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| From Summer's hand his stores of angry sway; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| His rattling thunders with thy winds unite, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···/· |
| On thy pale snows those livid lightnings play, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| That pour their deathful splendors o'er his night, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To poise the pleasures of his golden day, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Soft gales, blue skies, and long-protracted light. | 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.