Analysis of Sonnet LXI

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



Supposed to have been written in America.

ILL-omen'd bird! whose cries portentous float
O'er yon savannah with the mournful wind;
While, as the Indian hears your piercing note,
Dark dread of future evil fills his mind;
Wherefore with early lamentation break
The dear delusive visions of repose?
Why from so short felicity awake
My wounded senses to substantial woes?
O'er my sick soul thus rous'd from transient rest,
Pale Superstition sheds her influence drear,
And to my shuddering fancy would suggest
Thou com'st to speak of ev'ry woe I fear,
Ah! Reason little o'er the soul prevails,
When, from ideal ill, the enfeebled spirit fails!


Scheme X ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Poetic Form
Metre 011111000100 111110101 10101010101 11010011101 1111010111 111011 01110101 1111010001 1101010101 10111111101 1010101001 01110010101 1111111111 11010100101 110110010101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 632
Words 107
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 1, 14
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 255
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
119

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…

All Charlotte Smith poems | Charlotte Smith Books

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