Analysis of Sonnet XXVI. To The River Arun

Charlotte Smith 1749 (London) – 1806 (Tilford, Surrey)



ON thy wild banks, by frequent torrents worn,
No glittering fanes, or marble domes appear,
Yet shall the mournful muse thy course adorn,
And still to her thy rustic waves be dear.
For with the infant Otway, lingering here,
Of early woes she bade her votary dream,
While thy low murmurs sooth'd his pensive ear
And still the poet--consecrates the stream.
Beneath the oak and birch that fringe thy side,
The first-born violets of the year shall spring;
And in thy hazles, bending o'er the tide,
The earliest nightingale delight to sing:
While kindred spirits, pitying, shall relate
Thy Otway's sorrows, and lament his fate.


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Poetic Form Shakespearean sonnet 
Metre 1111110101 11001110101 1101011101 0110110111 1101011001 110111011 1111011101 01010101 0101011111 01110010111 0011101001 01001000111 11010100101 111000111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 616
Words 107
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 492
Words per stanza (avg) 105
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
54

Charlotte Smith

Charlotte Turner Smith was an English Romantic poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility. A successful writer, she published ten novels, three books of poetry, four children's books, and other assorted works over the course of her career. She saw herself as a poet first and foremost, poetry at that period being considered the most exalted form of literature. Scholars now credit her with transforming the sonnet into an expression of woeful sentiment. more…

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