To the Muse
Queen of my songs, harmonious maid,Ah! why hast thou withdrawn thy aid?Ah! why forsaken thus my breastWith inauspicious damps oppress'd?Where is the dread prophetic heatWith which my bosom wont to beat?Where all the bright mysterious dreamsOf haunted groves and tuneful streams,That woo'd my genius to divinest themes?
Say, goddess, can the festal board,Or young Olympia's form adored;Say, can the pomp of promised fameRelume thy faint, thy dying flame?Or have melodious airs the powerTo give one free, poetic hour?Or, from amid the Elysian train,The soul of Milton shall I gain,To win thee back with some celestial strain?
O powerful strain! O sacred soul!His numbers every sense control:And now again my bosom burns;The Muse, the Muse herself returns.Such on the banks of Tyne, confess'd,I hail'd the fair immortal guest,When first she seal'd me for her own,Made all her blissful treasures known,And bade me swear to follow Her alone.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- inauspicious a.
- Not auspicious; ill-omened; unfortunate; unlucky; unfavorable.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- festal a.
- Of or pertaining to a holiday or a feast; joyous; festive. [L. festum holiday, feast. See feast.]
- relume v. t.
- To rekindle; to light again. [OF. relumer (cf. F. rallumer), L. reluminare; pref. re- re- + luminare to light. Cf. Reillume.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- elysian a.
- Pertaining, or the abode of the blessed after death; hence, yielding the highest pleasures; exceedingly delightful; beatific. [L. Elysius, fr. Elysium.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- blissful a.
- Full of, characterized by, or causing, joy and felicity; happy in the highest degree.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Muse is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside, Project Gutenberg ebook #9814; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mark Akenside, To the Muse, in The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside (1744), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9814, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/akenside-poems/to-the-muse.html, id L09509.
Form and metre
To the Muse is 27 lines in 3 stanzas of 9 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCCDDD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDD maidA · aidA · breastB · oppress'dB · heatC · beatC · dreamsD · streamsD · themesD
- 2 AABBCCDDD boardA · adoredA · fameB · flameB · powerC · hourC · trainD · gainD · strainD
- 3 AABBCCDDD soulA · controlA · burnsB · returnsB · confess'dC · guestC · ownD · knownD · aloneD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Queen of my songs, harmonious maid, | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| Ah! why hast thou withdrawn thy aid? | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Ah! why forsaken thus my breast | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| With inauspicious damps oppress'd? | 8 | ·˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Where is the dread prophetic heat | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| With which my bosom wont to beat? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Where all the bright mysterious dreams | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| Of haunted groves and tuneful streams, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That woo'd my genius to divinest themes? | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Say, goddess, can the festal board, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or young Olympia's form adored; | 10 | ··˘/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| Say, can the pomp of promised fame | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Relume thy faint, thy dying flame? | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Or have melodious airs the power | 10 | ··˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| To give one free, poetic hour? | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| Or, from amid the Elysian train, | 9 | ··˘/·˘/˘· |
| The soul of Milton shall I gain, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To win thee back with some celestial strain? | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| O powerful strain! O sacred soul! | 10 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘· |
| His numbers every sense control: | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| And now again my bosom burns; | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| The Muse, the Muse herself returns. | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| Such on the banks of Tyne, confess'd, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I hail'd the fair immortal guest, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| When first she seal'd me for her own, | 8 | ········ |
| Made all her blissful treasures known, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And bade me swear to follow Her alone. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.