Analysis of Hymn on Solitude
James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)
Hail, mildly pleasing solitude,
Companion of the wise and good;
But, from whose holy, piercing eye,
The herd of fools, and villains fly.
Oh! how I love with thee to walk,
And listen to thy whisper'd talk,
Which innocence, and truth imparts,
And melts the most obdurate hearts.
A thousand shapes you wear with ease,
And still in every shape you please.
Now wrapt in some mysterious dream,
A lone philosopher you seem;
Now quick from hill to vale you fly,
And now you sweep the vaulted sky;
A shepherd next, you haunt the plain,
And warble forth your oaten strain;
A lover now, with all the grace
Of that sweet passion in your face:
Then, calm'd to friendship, you assume
The gentle-looking Hertford's bloom,
As, with her Musidora, she,
(Her Musidora fond of thee)
Amid the long withdrawing vale,
Awakes the rival'd nightingale.
Thine is the balmy breath of morn,
Just as the dew-bent rose is born;
And while meridian fervours beat,
Thine is the woodland dumb retreat;
But chief, when evening scenes decay,
And the faint landskip swims away,
Thine is the doubtful soft decline,
And that best hour of musing thine.
Descending angels bless thy train,
The virtues of the sage, and swain;
Plain Innocence in white array'd,
Before thee lifts her fearless head:
Religion's beams around thee shine,
And cheer thy glooms with light divine:
About thee sports sweet Liberty;
And rapt Urania sings to thee.
Oh, let me pierce thy secret cell!
And in thy deep recesses dwell!
Perhaps from Norwood's oak-clad hill,
When meditation has her fill,
I just may cast my careless eyes
Where London's spiry turrets rise,
Think of its crimes, its cares, its pain,
Then shield me in the woods again.
Scheme | XXAABBCC DDEEAAFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLMMNN FFXXNNII OOPPQQFX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010 01010101 11110101 01110101 11111111 01011101 11000101 01011001 01011111 010100111 110101001 01010011 11111111 01110101 01011101 0101111 01011101 11110011 11110101 0101011 11000101 00010111 01010101 1010100 11010111 11011111 01010011 1101101 11110101 0011101 11010101 011101101 01010111 01010101 11000101 01110101 01010111 01111101 01111100 011111 11111101 00111001 0111111 1010101 11111101 1101101 11111111 11100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,638 |
Words | 292 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 16, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 262 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:30 min read
- 118 Views
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"Hymn on Solitude" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20577/hymn-on-solitude>.
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