December Morning
I love to rise ere gleams the tardy light,Winter's pale dawn;--and as warm fires illume,And cheerful tapers shine around the room,Thro' misty windows bend my musing sightWhere, round the dusky lawn, the mansions white,With shutters clos'd, peer faintly thro' the gloom,That slow recedes; while yon grey spires assume,Rising from their dark pile, an added heightBy indistinctness given.--Then to decreeThe grateful thoughts to GOD, ere they unfoldTo Friendship, or the Muse, or seek with gleeWisdom's rich page!--O, hours! more worth than gold,By whose blest use we lengthen Life, and freeFrom drear decays of Age, outlive the Old!
Words in this poem
- illume v. t.
- To throw or spread light upon; to make light or bright; to illuminate; to illumine. [Cf. F. illuminer. See Illuminate.]
- indistinctness n.
- The quality or condition of being indistinct; want of definiteness; dimness; confusion; as, the indistinctness of a picture, or of comprehension; indistinctness of vision.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- outlive v. t.
- To live beyond, or longer than; to survive.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
December Morning 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 Morning, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/december-morning.html, id L09792.
Form and metre
December Morning 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 91%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% 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 lightA · illumeB · roomA · sightB · whiteC · gloomD · assumeC · heightD · decreeE · unfoldF · gleeE · goldF · freeG · oldG
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 love to rise ere gleams the tardy light, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Winter's pale dawn;--and as warm fires illume, | 10 | /˘·····/˘/ |
| And cheerful tapers shine around the room, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Thro' misty windows bend my musing sight | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Where, round the dusky lawn, the mansions white, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With shutters clos'd, peer faintly thro' the gloom, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That slow recedes; while yon grey spires assume, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Rising from their dark pile, an added height | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| By indistinctness given.--Then to decree | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| The grateful thoughts to GOD, ere they unfold | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| To Friendship, or the Muse, or seek with glee | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Wisdom's rich page!--O, hours! more worth than gold, | 10 | /˘···/···· |
| By whose blest use we lengthen Life, and free | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| From drear decays of Age, outlive the Old! | 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.