Written in the Spring 1785 on the Death of the Poet Laureat
The knell of WHITEHEAD tolls!--his cares are past,The hapless tribute of his purchas'd lays,His servile, his Egyptian tasks of praise!--If not sublime his strains, Fame justly plac'dTheir power above their work.--Now, with wide gazeOf much indignant wonder, she surveysTo the life-labouring oar assiduous hasteA glowing Bard, by every Muse embrac'd.--O, WARTON! chosen Priest of Phœbus' choir!Shall thy rapt song be venal? hymn the THRONE,Whether its edicts just applause inspire,Or PATRIOT VIRTUE view them with a frown?What needs for this the golden-stringed Lyre,The snowy Tunic, and the Sun-bright Zone!
Words in this poem
- whitehead n.
- A form of self-propelling torpedo.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- indignant a.
- Affected with indignation; wrathful; passionate; irate; feeling wrath, as when a person is exasperated by unworthy or unjust treatment, by a mean action, or by a degrading accusation. [L. indignans, -antis, p. pr. of indignari to be indignant, disdain. See Indign.]
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Written in the Spring 1785 on the Death of the Poet Laureat 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, Written in the Spring 1785 on the Death of the Poet Laureat, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/written-in-the-spring-1785-on-the-death-of-the-poet-laureat.html, id L09798.
Form and metre
Written in the Spring 1785 on the Death of the Poet Laureat 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%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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 pastA · laysB · praiseA · plac'dB · gazeC · surveysD · hasteC · embrac'dD · choirE · throneF · inspireE · frownF · lyreG · zoneG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The knell of WHITEHEAD tolls!--his cares are past, | 10 | ···/······ |
| The hapless tribute of his purchas'd lays, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| His servile, his Egyptian tasks of praise!-- | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| If not sublime his strains, Fame justly plac'd | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Their power above their work.--Now, with wide gaze | 10 | ·/········ |
| Of much indignant wonder, she surveys | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| To the life-labouring oar assiduous haste | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| A glowing Bard, by every Muse embrac'd.-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| O, WARTON! chosen Priest of Phœbus' choir! | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| Shall thy rapt song be venal? hymn the THRONE, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Whether its edicts just applause inspire, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Or PATRIOT VIRTUE view them with a frown? | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| What needs for this the golden-stringed Lyre, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| The snowy Tunic, and the Sun-bright Zone! | 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.