An Ode for Music
"With woful measures wan Despair--Low, sullen sounds his grief beguiled,A solemn, strange, and mingled air,'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild."
Relegat, qui semel percurrit;Qui nunquam legit, legat.
"But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair,What was thy delighted measure!Still it whisper'd promised pleasure,And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!Still would her touch the strain prolong,And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,She call'd on Echo still through all the song;And where her sweetest theme she chose,A soft responsive voice was heard at every close,And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair.""And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair."
Legat, qui nunquam legit;Qui semel percurrit, relegat.
Words in this poem
- woful a.
- Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity; afflicted; wretched; unhappy; sad.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- responsive a.
- That responds; ready or inclined to respond. [Cf. F. resposif.]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Ode for Music 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 for Music, in Ode to Evening, and Other Poems (1746), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29879, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/collins-poems/an-ode-for-music-2.html, id L13374.
Form and metre
An Ode for Music is 19 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 ABAB despairA · beguiledB · airA · wildB
- 3 ABBCDCDEEAA fairA · measureB · pleasureB · hailC · prolongD · valeC · songD · choseE · closeE · hairA · hairA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "With woful measures wan Despair-- | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Low, sullen sounds his grief beguiled, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| A solemn, strange, and mingled air, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| 'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild." | 8 | ········ |
| Relegat, qui semel percurrit; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Qui nunquam legit, legat. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| "But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair, | 8 | ········ |
| What was thy delighted measure! | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| Still it whisper'd promised pleasure, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Still would her touch the strain prolong, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, | 8 | ········ |
| She call'd on Echo still through all the song; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And where her sweetest theme she chose, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A soft responsive voice was heard at every close, | 12 | ··˘/˘····/˘· |
| And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair." | 12 | ··˘/˘····/˘· |
| "And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair." | 12 | ··˘/˘····/˘· |
| Legat, qui nunquam legit; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Qui semel percurrit, relegat. | 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.