Analysis of The Effects of Spring on Nature

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



See where the winding vale its lavish stores,
Irriguous, spreads. See, how the lily drinks
The latent rill, scarce oozing through the grass,
In fair profusion, decks. Long let us walk,
Where the breeze blows from yon extended field
Of blossom'd beans. Arabia cannot boast
A fuller gale of joy, than, liberal, thence
Breathes through the sense, and takes the ravish'd soul.
Nor is the mead unworthy of thy foot,
Full of fresh verdure and unnumber'd flowers,
The negligence of nature, wide and wild;
Where, undisguised by mimic art, she spreads
Unbounded beauty to the roving eye.
Here their delicious task the fervent bees,
In swarming millions, tend: around, athwart,
Through the soft air, the busy nations fly,
Cling to the bud, and, with inserted tube,
Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul;
And oft, with bolder wing, they soaring dare
The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows,
And yellow load them with the luscious spoil.
At length the finish'd garden to the view
Its vistas opens, and its alleys, green.
Snatch'd through the verdent maze, the buried eye
Distracted wanders; now the bowery walk
Of covert close, where scarce a speck of day
Falls on the lengthen'd gloom, protracted sweeps;
Now meets the bending sky; the river now
Dimpling along, the breezy-ruffled lake.
The forest darkening round, the glittering spire,
Th' ethereal mountain, and the distant main.


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOMPHQRSTUMDVWXYZ1
Poetic Form
Metre 1101011101 11110101 0101110101 0101011111 1011110101 11010100101 01011111001 110101011 1101010111 11110110 0100110101 101110111 0101010101 1101010101 0101010101 1011010101 1101010101 11110101001 0111011101 0101110111 0101110101 1101010101 1101001101 110110101 01010101001 1101110111 1101010101 1101010101 101010101 010100101001 1101001000101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,359
Words 232
Sentences 10
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 31
Lines Amount 31
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,090
Words per stanza (avg) 230
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

1:11 min read
59

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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