Analysis of Noontide Retreat of Summer As a Haunt for Meditation

James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)



Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky,
A thousand shapes, or glide athwart the dusk,
Or stalk majestic on. Deep-roused, I feel
A sacred terror, a severe delight,
Creep through my mortal frame; and thus, methinks,
A voice, than human more, th' abstracted ear
Of fancy strikes: - 'Be not of us afraid,
Poor kindred man! thy fellow-creatures, we
From the same Parent-power our beings drew,
The same our Lord, and laws, and great pursuit.
Once, some of us, like thee, through stormy life
Toil'd, tempest-beaten, ere we could attain
This holy calm, this harmony of mind,
Where purity and peace immingle charms.
Then fear not us; but with responsive song,
Amid these dim recesses, undisturb'd
By noisy folly and discordant vice,
Of nature sing with us, and nature's God.
Here frequent, at the visionary hour,
When musing midnight reigns, or silent noon,
Angelic harps are in full concert heard,
And voices chanting from the wood-crown'd hill,
The deepening dale, or inmost sylvan glade:
A privilege bestow'd by us alone,
On contemplation, or the hallow'd ear
Of poet, swelling to seraphic strain.'


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKLMENOEPQRSTGUFL
Poetic Form
Metre 1101010101 0101110101 1101011111 0101000101 111101011 01110111101 1101111101 1101110101 101101010101 01101010101 1111111101 1101011101 1101110011 11000111 1111110101 011110001 1101000101 1101110101 1101010010 110111101 101101101 0101010111 0100111101 010011101 101010101 11010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,075
Words 186
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 849
Words per stanza (avg) 183
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

57 sec read
61

James Thomson

James Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night, an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment. more…

All James Thomson poems | James Thomson Books

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