Sonnet XXIII
Dark as the silent stream beneath the night,Thy funeral glides to Life's eternal home,Child of its narrow house!--how late the bloom,The facile smile, the soft eye's crystal light,Each grace of Youth's gay morn, that charms our sight,Play'd o'er that Form!--now sunk in Death's cold gloom,Insensate! ghastly!--for the yawning tomb,Alas! fit Inmate.--Thus we mourn the blightOf Virgin-Beauty, and endowments rareIn their glad hours of promise.--O! when AgeDrops, like the o'er-blown, faded rose, tho' dearIts long known worth, no stormy sorrows rage;But swell when we behold, unsoil'd by time,Youth's broken Lily perished in its prime.
Words in this poem
- facile a.
- Easy to be done or performed: not difficult; performable or attainable with little labor. [L. facilis, prop., capable of being done or made, hence, facile, easy, fr. facere to make, do: cf. F. facile. Srr Fact, and cf. Faculty.]
- 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.]
- insensate a.
- Wanting sensibility; destitute of sense; stupid; foolish. [L. insensatus. See In- not, and Sensate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXIII 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 XXIII, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/sonnet-xxiii.html, id L20477.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXIII 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%).
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 nightA · homeB · bloomA · lightB · sightC · gloomD · tombC · blightD · rareE · ageF · dearE · rageF · timeG · primeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dark as the silent stream beneath the night, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thy funeral glides to Life's eternal home, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Child of its narrow house!--how late the bloom, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The facile smile, the soft eye's crystal light, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Each grace of Youth's gay morn, that charms our sight, | 10 | ········/· |
| Play'd o'er that Form!--now sunk in Death's cold gloom, | 10 | ·········· |
| Insensate! ghastly!--for the yawning tomb, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Alas! fit Inmate.--Thus we mourn the blight | 10 | ˘/·/······ |
| Of Virgin-Beauty, and endowments rare | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| In their glad hours of promise.--O! when Age | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Drops, like the o'er-blown, faded rose, tho' dear | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Its long known worth, no stormy sorrows rage; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| But swell when we behold, unsoil'd by time, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Youth's broken Lily perished in its prime. | 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.