Sonnet XIX
When Death, or adverse Fortune's ruthless gale,Tears our best hopes away, the wounded HeartExhausted, leans on all that can impartThe charm of Sympathy; her mutual wailHow soothing! never can her warm tears failTo balm our bleeding grief's severest smart;Nor wholly vain feign'd Pity's solemn art,Tho' we should penetrate her sable veil.Concern, e'en known to be assum'd, our painsRespecting, kinder welcome far acquiresThan cold Neglect, or Mirth that Grief profanes.Thus each faint Glow-worm of the Night conspires,Gleaming along the moss'd and darken'd lanes,To cheer the Gloom with her unreal fires.
Words in this poem
- ruthless a.
- Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless.
- sable n.
- A carnivorous animal of the Weasel family (Mustela zibellina) native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, -- noted for its fine, soft, and valuable fur. [OF. sable, F. zibeline sable (in sense 4), LL. sabellum; cf. D. sabel, Dan. sabel, zobel, Sw. sabel, sobel, G. zobel; all fr. Russ. sóbole.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XIX 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, Sonnet XIX, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/sonnet-xix.html, id L20473.
Form and metre
Sonnet XIX 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 88%).
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 galeA · heartB · impartA · wailB · failC · smartD · artC · veilD · painsE · acquiresF · profanesE · conspiresF · lanesG · firesG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Death, or adverse Fortune's ruthless gale, | 10 | ···/·/˘/˘· |
| Tears our best hopes away, the wounded Heart | 10 | ·/··˘/·/˘· |
| Exhausted, leans on all that can impart | 10 | ˘/˘·····˘/ |
| The charm of Sympathy; her mutual wail | 10 | ···/˘·/˘˘· |
| How soothing! never can her warm tears fail | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| To balm our bleeding grief's severest smart; | 10 | ··//˘·˘/˘· |
| Nor wholly vain feign'd Pity's solemn art, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Tho' we should penetrate her sable veil. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Concern, e'en known to be assum'd, our pains | 10 | ˘/····˘//· |
| Respecting, kinder welcome far acquires | 11 | ˘/˘/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Than cold Neglect, or Mirth that Grief profanes. | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Thus each faint Glow-worm of the Night conspires, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Gleaming along the moss'd and darken'd lanes, | 10 | /˘˘/···/˘· |
| To cheer the Gloom with her unreal fires. | 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.