Ode to Hope II. 1
When first on childhood's eager gazeLife's varied landscape, stretch'd immense around,Starts out of night profound,Thy voice incites to tempt the untrodden maze.Fond he surveys thy mild maternal face,His bashful eye still kindling as he views,And, while thy lenient arm supports his pace,With beating heart the upland path pursues:The path that leads, where, hung sublime,And seen afar, youth's gallant trophies, brightIn Fancy's rainbow ray, inviteHis wingy nerves to climb.
Words in this poem
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
- maternal a.
- Of or pertaining to a mother; becoming to a mother; motherly; as, maternal love; maternal tenderness. [F. maternel, L. maternus, fr. mater mother. See Mother.]
- bashful a.
- Abashed; daunted; dismayed. [See Bash.]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- wingy a.
- Having wings; rapid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ode to Hope II. 1 is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #8695; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Beattie, Ode to Hope II. 1, in The Minstrel and Other Poems (1771–1774), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/beattie-minstrel/ode-to-hope-ii-1.html, id L09584.
Form and metre
Ode to Hope II. 1 is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDCDEFFE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBACDCDEFFE gazeA · aroundB · profoundB · mazeA · faceC · viewsD · paceC · pursuesD · sublimeE · brightF · inviteF · climbE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When first on childhood's eager gaze | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Life's varied landscape, stretch'd immense around, | 10 | ·/˘/··˘/·· |
| Starts out of night profound, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Thy voice incites to tempt the untrodden maze. | 11 | ··˘/······· |
| Fond he surveys thy mild maternal face, | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| His bashful eye still kindling as he views, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And, while thy lenient arm supports his pace, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| With beating heart the upland path pursues: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| The path that leads, where, hung sublime, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And seen afar, youth's gallant trophies, bright | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| In Fancy's rainbow ray, invite | 8 | ·/˘/··˘/ |
| His wingy nerves to climb. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.