Sonnet: At Ostend, July 22nd 1787

William Lisle Bowles 1762 (King's Sutton) – 1850



How sweet the tuneful bells' responsive peal!
As when, at opening morn, the fragrant breeze
Breathes on the trembling sense of wan disease,
So piercing to my heart their force I feel!
And hark! with lessening cadence now they fall,
And now, along the white and level tide,
They fling their melancholy music wide,
Bidding me many a tender thought recall
Of summer-days, and those delightful years
When by my native streams, in life's fair prime,
The mournful magic of their mingling chime
First waked my wond'ring childhood into tears;—
But seeming now, when all those days are o'er,
The sounds of joy, once heard, and heard no more.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
97

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBACDDCEFFGHI
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 630
Words 112
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

William Lisle Bowles

William Lisle Bowles was an English poet and critic In 1783 he won the chancellors prize for Latin verse In 1789 he published in a small quarto volume Fourteen Sonnets which were received with extraordinary favour not only by the general public but by such men as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Wordsworth The Sonnets even in form were a revival a return to an older and purer poetic style and by their grace of expression melodious versification tender tone of feeling and vivid appreciation of the life and beauty of nature stood out in strong contrast to the elaborated commonplaces which at that time formed the bulk of English poetry more…

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