Sonnet XVII
That song again!--its sounds my bosom thrill,Breathe of past years, to all their joys allied;And, as the notes thro' my sooth'd spirits glide,Dear Recollection's choicest sweets distill,Soft as the Morn's calm dew on yonder hill,When slants the Sun upon its grassy side,Tinging the brooks that many a mead divideWith lines of gilded light; and blue, and still,The distant lake stands gleaming in the vale.Sing, yet once more, that well-remember'd strain,Which oft made vocal every passing galeIn days long fled, in Pleasure's golden reign,The youth of chang'd HONORA!--now it wearsHer air--her smile--spells of the vanish'd years!
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XVII 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 XVII, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/sonnet-xvii.html, id L20471.
Form and metre
Sonnet XVII 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 92%).
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 thrillA · alliedB · glideA · distillB · hillC · sideD · divideC · stillD · valeE · strainF · galeE · reignF · wearsG · yearsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That song again!--its sounds my bosom thrill, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Breathe of past years, to all their joys allied; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And, as the notes thro' my sooth'd spirits glide, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Dear Recollection's choicest sweets distill, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Soft as the Morn's calm dew on yonder hill, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When slants the Sun upon its grassy side, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Tinging the brooks that many a mead divide | 10 | /˘···/··˘/ |
| With lines of gilded light; and blue, and still, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The distant lake stands gleaming in the vale. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Sing, yet once more, that well-remember'd strain, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Which oft made vocal every passing gale | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| In days long fled, in Pleasure's golden reign, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The youth of chang'd HONORA!--now it wears | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Her air--her smile--spells of the vanish'd years! | 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.