Analysis of Summer

James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)



Now swarms the village o'er the jovial mead:
The rustic youth, brown with meridian toil,
Healthful and strong; full as the summer-rose
Blown by prevailing suns, the ruddy maid,
Half naked, swelling on the sight, and all
Her kindled graces burning o'er her cheek.
E'en stooping age is here; and infant hands
Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load
O'ercharged, amid the kind oppression roll.
Wide flies the tedded grain; all in a row
Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field,
They spread the breathing harvest to the sun,
That throws refreshful round a rural smell:
Or, as they rake the green-appearing ground,
And drive the dusky wave along the mead,
The russet hay-cock rises thick behind,
In order gay. While heard from dale to dale,
Waking the breeze, resounds the blended voice
Of happy labour, love, and social glee.


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKLMNAOPQR
Poetic Form
Metre 110101001001 01011101001 1001110101 1101010101 1101010101 01010101001 11101110101 1011110101 101010101 110111001 0101110101 1101010101 11110101 1111010101 010110101 0101110101 0101111111 100110101 110110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 823
Words 144
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 19
Lines Amount 19
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 656
Words per stanza (avg) 142
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

44 sec read
52

James Thomson

James Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night, an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment. more…

All James Thomson poems | James Thomson Books

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