Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet: How Many Bards explained
The speaker reflects on how many poets have enriched time, and how their works serve as nourishment for his imagination.
What happens
The speaker reflects on how many poets have enriched time, and how their works serve as nourishment for his imagination. When he sits down to write, these bards crowd his mind, but instead of causing confusion, they create a harmonious and pleasing chime, much like the varied sounds of evening—birdsong, rustling leaves, water, and a distant bell—that blend into a soothing music rather than a wild uproar.
Themes in this chapter
Art and Poetry
The poem celebrates the enduring power of poetry and the way past bards inspire and harmonize with the speaker's own creative process.
Nature and Imagination
The speaker compares the influence of poets to the natural sounds of evening, blending imagination with the sensory world to create a pleasing music.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The speaker who reflects on the influence of past bards and the harmonious effect they have on his own poetic composition.
Key passages
“How many bards gild the lapses of time!”
How many poets enrich and beautify the empty stretches of time!
The speaker marvels at the number of poets whose works add luster to history.
“A few of them have ever been the food Of my delighted fancy,—I could brood Over their beauties, earthly, or sublime:”
A select few have always nourished my joyful imagination; I could dwell on their beauties, whether worldly or transcendent.
The speaker identifies the poets who have most deeply influenced his creative mind.
“And often, when I sit me down to rhyme, These will in throngs before my mind intrude: But no confusion, no disturbance rude Do they occasion; ’tis a pleasing chime.”
Often, when I sit down to write poetry, these poets crowd into my thoughts, but they cause no disorder or harsh interruption; instead, they create a harmonious melody.
The speaker describes how the influence of past poets is a welcome and orderly inspiration, not a chaotic intrusion.
“So the unnumber’d sounds that evening store; The songs of birds—the whisp’ring of the leaves— The voice of waters—the great bell that heaves With solemn sound,—and thousand others more, That distance of recognizance bereaves, Make pleasing music, and not wild uproar.”
Just like the countless sounds that evening holds—the songs of birds, the whispering of leaves, the sound of water, the great bell that tolls solemnly, and a thousand other sounds too distant to identify—they all combine into a pleasing music, not a wild noise.
The speaker uses a simile from nature to illustrate how the many voices of past poets blend harmoniously in his mind.