Analysis of Scenes Favourable To Meditation
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
Wilds horrid and dark with o'er shadowing trees,
Rocks that ivy and briers infold,
Scenes nature with dread and astonishment sees,
But I with a pleasure untold;
Though awfully silent, and shaggy, and rude,
I am charmed with the peace ye afford;
Your shades are a temple where none will intrude,
The abode of my lover and Lord.
I am sick of thy splendour, O fountain of day,
And here I am hid from its beams,
Here safely contemplate a brighter display
Of the noblest and holiest of themes.
Ye forests, that yield me my sweetest repose,
Where stillness and solitude reign,
To you I securely and boldly disclose
The dear anguish of which I complain.
Here, sweetly forgetting and wholly forgot
By the world and its turbulent throng,
The birds and the streams lend me many a note
That aids meditation and song.
Here, wandering in scenes that are sacred to night,
Love wears me and wastes me away,
And often the sun has spent much of his light
Ere yet I perceive it is day.
While a mantle of darkness envelops the sphere,
My sorrows are sadly rehearsed,
To me the dark hours are all equally dear,
And the last is as sweet as the first.
Here I and the beasts of the deserts agree,
Mankind are the wolves that I fear,
They grudge me my natural right to be free,
But nobody questions it here.
Though little is found in this dreary abode
That appetite wishes to find,
My spirit is soothed by the presence of God,
And appetite wholly resigned.
Ye desolate scenes, to your solitude led,
My life I in praises employ,
And scarce know the source of the tears that I shed,
Proceed they from sorrow or joy.
There's nothing I seem to have skill to discern,
I feel out my way in the dark,
Love reigns in my bosom, I constantly burn,
Yet hardly distinguish the spark.
I live, yet I seem to myself to be dead,
Such a riddle is not to be found,
I am nourished without knowing how I am fed,
I have nothing, and yet I abound.
Oh, love! who in darkness art pleased to abide,
Though dimly, yet surely I see
That these contrarieties only reside
In the soul that is chosen of thee.
Ah! send me not back to the race of mankind,
Perversely by folly beguiled,
For where, in the crowds I have left, shall I find
The spirit and heart of a child?
Here let me, though fixed in a desert, be free;
A little one whom they despise,
Though lost to the world, if in union with thee,
Shall be holy, and happy, and wise.
Scheme | ABAB BBBB BCDC EFEF BGBG BDBB HBHB IHIX BBBB BJBJ KLKL BBBB BIBI BBBB IMIM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (93%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 110011101001 1110011 11011001001 11101001 1101001001 111101101 11101011101 001111001 11111111011 01111111 1101001001 1010010011 11011111001 1100101 11101001001 011011101 11001001001 101011001 01001111001 1101001 110001111011 11101101 01001111111 11101111 101011001001 11011001 110110111001 001111101 11001101001 11101111 11111001111 111011 11011011001 1101011 11011101011 0101001 1100111101 11101001 01101101111 01111011 11011111101 11111001 11011011001 11001001 1111111111 101011111 111001101111 111001101 11101011101 11011011 1111001 001111011 11111101111 01011001 11001111111 01001101 11111001011 01011101 11101101011 111001001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,326 |
Words | 453 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 124 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:16 min read
- 107 Views
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"Scenes Favourable To Meditation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40086/scenes-favourable-to-meditation>.
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