Analysis of Farewell To Gilsland

Robert Anderson 1750 (Carnwath) – 1830



Adieu, ye dun heaths, purple vales, and wild flowers,
Ye banks whose proud steeps in green verdure are drest;
Ye walks, and ye woodlands, ye glades, and cool bowers,
In whose retir'd shades oft the wearied find rest.
To the town and its follies, fate calls me away;
But reluctant and sad I the summons obey.

Adieu, ye grey crags, and thou hoarse--murm'ring river,
Whose sounds, heard afar, lull the mind to repose;
Near thee could I dwell in retirement, and ever
On thy wood--fring'd windings forget all my woes:
There, free from temptation, unknown would I live,
And taste the delights only virtue can give.

And thou source of health, whose clear waters still flowing,
Faint tppe of His bounty who governs this ball;
New vigour, new life, to the wretched bestowing,
Long may thy blue streams pour their healing to all;
And thy rock be the seat of contentment and mirth,
While peace, love, and virtue are cherish'd on earth.


Scheme ABABCC DEDEXX FGFGHH
Poetic Form
Metre 011111010110 1111101111 11011110110 01011101011 101011011101 101001101001 01111011110 11101101101 1111100100010 1111101111 11101001111 01001101011 011111110110 11111011011 11111010010 11111111011 011101101001 11101011011
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 915
Words 164
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 240
Words per stanza (avg) 54
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

50 sec read
51

Robert Anderson

Robert Anderson was a Scottish author and critic. He was born at Carnwath, Lanarkshire. He studied first divinity and then medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently, after some experience as a surgeon, took his M.D. at the University of St Andrews in 1778. He began to practise as a physician at Alnwick in Northumberland, but he became financially independent by his marriage with the daughter of John Gray, and abandoned his profession for a literary life in Edinburgh. For several years his attention was occupied with his edition of The Works of the British Poets, with Prefaces Biographical and Critical. His other publications were: The Miscellaneous Works of Tobias Smollett, M.D., with Memoirs of his Life and Writings Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., with Critical Observations on his Works The Works of John Moore, M.D., with Memoirs of his Life and Writings The Grave and other Poems, by Robert Blair; to which are prefixed some Account of his Life and Observations on his Writings. more…

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