Analysis of Reflections Suggested By Winter
James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)
'Tis done! dread winter spreads its latest glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!
How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His desolate domain. Behold, fond man!
See here thy pictured life: pass some few years,
Thy flowering spring, thy summer's ardent strength,
And pale concluding winter comes at last,
Thy sober autumn fading into age,
And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled
Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes
Of happiness? those longings after fame?
Those restless cares? those busy bustling days?
Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts,
Lost between good and ill, that shared thy life?
All now are vanish'd! Virtue sole survives,
Immortal never-failing friend of man,
His guide to happiness on high. And see!
'Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth
Of heaven and earth! awakening nature hears
The new-creating word, and starts to life,
In every heighten'd form, from pain and death
For ever free. The great eternal scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads
To reason's eye refined clears up apace.
Ye vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous! now,
Confounded in the dust, adore that Power
And Wisdom oft arraign'd: see now the cause,
Why unassuming worth in secret lived,
And died neglected: why the good man's share
In life was gall and bitterness of soul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans pined
In starving solitude; while luxury,
In palaces, lay straining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heaven-born truth,
And moderation fair, wore the red marks
Of superstition's scourge: why licensed pain,
That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe,
Embitter'd all our bliss. Ye good distress'd!
Ye noble few, who here unbending stand
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile,
And what your bounded view, which only saw
A little part, deem'd evil is no more!
The storms of wintry time will quickly pass,
And one unbounded spring encircle all.
Scheme | ABAACADEFGAHAAIACAJAIKLMAANOAPQMRSTUAVWXYZA1 A2 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011101 01010100101 110100101 1101010101 1100010111 1111011111 11001110101 0101010111 1101010011 0101110111 11110111 1100110101 11011101001 1111011101 1011011111 1111010101 0101010111 1111001101 11010010101 110010100101 0101010111 01001011101 1101010101 0101000011 0101010101 111011101 11011101001 01000101110 0101011101 101010101 0101010111 0111010011 1011000101 010101100 0100110011 1101111011 001011011 1111101 11010111 01011011101 110111101 0111011101 0111011101 0101110111 0111011101 0101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,947 |
Words | 328 |
Sentences | 29 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 46 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,566 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 326 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:42 min read
- 59 Views
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"Reflections Suggested By Winter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20601/reflections-suggested-by-winter>.
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