Ode to Peace IV. 1
Illusions vain! Can sacred Peace reside,Where sordid gold the breast alarms,Where cruelty inflames the eye of Pride,And Grandeur wantons in soft Pleasure's arms?Ambition! these are thine;These from the soul erase the form divine;These quench the animating fireThat warms the bosom with sublime desire.Thence the relentless heart forgets to feel,Hate rides tremendous on the o'erwhelming brow,And midnight Rancour grasps the cruel steel,Blaze the funereal flames, and sound the shrieks of Woe.
Words in this poem
- sordid a.
- Filthy; foul; dirty. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See Swart, a.]
- relentless a.
- Unmoved by appeals for sympathy or forgiveness; insensible to the distresses of others; destitute of tenderness; unrelenting; unyielding; unpitying; as, a prey to relentless despotism.
- tremendous a.
- Fitted to excite fear or terror; such as may astonish or terrify by its magnitude, force, or violence; terrible; dreadful; as, a tremendous wind; a tremendous shower; a tremendous shock or fall. [L. tremendus that is to be trembled at, fearful, fr. tremere to tremble. See Tremble.]
- rancour n.
- The deepest malignity or spite; deep-seated enmity or malice; inveterate hatred. [OE. rancour, OF. rancor, rancur, F. rancune, fr. L. rancor rancidity, rankness; tropically, an old grudge, rancor, fr. rancere to be rank or rancid.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ode to Peace IV. 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 Peace IV. 1, in The Minstrel and Other Poems (1771–1774), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/beattie-minstrel/ode-to-peace-iv-1.html, id L09599.
Form and metre
Ode to Peace IV. 1 is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% 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 ABABCCDDE-E- resideA · alarmsB · prideA · armsB · thineC · divineC · fireD · desireD · feelE · brow · steelE · woe
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Illusions vain! Can sacred Peace reside, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Where sordid gold the breast alarms, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Where cruelty inflames the eye of Pride, | 9 | ·/˘˘/···· |
| And Grandeur wantons in soft Pleasure's arms? | 10 | ·˘//˘··/˘· |
| Ambition! these are thine; | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| These from the soul erase the form divine; | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| These quench the animating fire | 9 | ···/˘˘˘/˘ |
| That warms the bosom with sublime desire. | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Thence the relentless heart forgets to feel, | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Hate rides tremendous on the o'erwhelming brow, | 11 | ··˘/˘······ |
| And midnight Rancour grasps the cruel steel, | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| Blaze the funereal flames, and sound the shrieks of Woe. | 13 | ··˘/˘˘······· |
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.