An Ode
"Farewell the porch, whose roof is seen,Arch'd with the enlivening olive's green:Where Science, prank'd in tissued vest,By Reason, Pride, and Fancy drest,Comes like a bride, so trim array'd,To wed with Doubt in Plato's shade!"
"Me too amidst thy band admit,There where the young-eyed healthful Wit,(Whose jewels in his crisped hairAre placed each other's beams to share,Whom no delights from thee divide)In laughter loosed, attends thy side."
"O Humour, thou whose name is knownTo Britain's favour'd isle alone."
"By old Miletus," &c."By all you taught the Tuscan maids," &c.
Words in this poem
- tissued a.
- Clothed in, or adorned with, tissue; also, variegated; as, tissued flowers.
- vest n.
- An article of clothing covering the person; an outer garment; a vestment; a dress; a vesture; a robe. [L. vestis a garment, vesture; akin to Goth. wasti, and E. wear: cf. F. veste. See Wear to carry on the person, and cf. Divest, Invest, Travesty.]
- amidst 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]
- humour n.
- Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.]
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Ode is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Collins; With a Memoir, Project Gutenberg ebook #29879; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Collins, An Ode, in Poetical Works (1746), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29879, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/collins-poems/an-ode-2.html, id L13373.
Form and metre
An Ode is 16 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 12% 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 AABBCC seenA · greenA · vestB · drestB · array'dC · shadeC
- 2 AABBCC admitA · witA · hairB · shareB · divideC · sideC
- 3 AA knownA · aloneA
- 4 AA — · —
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Farewell the porch, whose roof is seen, | 8 | ·/······ |
| Arch'd with the enlivening olive's green: | 10 | ···˘/˘˘/˘· |
| Where Science, prank'd in tissued vest, | 9 | ·/˘··/·˘· |
| By Reason, Pride, and Fancy drest, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Comes like a bride, so trim array'd, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To wed with Doubt in Plato's shade!" | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| "Me too amidst thy band admit, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| There where the young-eyed healthful Wit, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| (Whose jewels in his crisped hair | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Are placed each other's beams to share, | 9 | ··˘·/˘··· |
| Whom no delights from thee divide) | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| In laughter loosed, attends thy side." | 9 | ·/˘·˘˘/·· |
| "O Humour, thou whose name is known | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To Britain's favour'd isle alone." | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| "By old Miletus," &c. | 6 | ······ |
| "By all you taught the Tuscan maids," &c. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
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.