Ode to Evening
"Now teach me, maid composed,To breathe some soften'd strain,Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale,May not unseemly with its stillness suit,As, musing slow, I hailThy genial loved return!"
"For when thy folding-star arising showsHis paly circlet, at his warning lampThe fragrant Hours, and ElvesWho slept in buds the day,
And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge,And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still,The pensive Pleasures sweet,Prepare thy shadowy car."
"Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene,Or find some ruin 'midst its dreary dells,Whose walls more awful nodBy thy religious gleams."
"That from the mountain's sideViews wilds and swelling floods;"
"----and marks o'er allThy dewy fingers drawThe gradual dusky veil."
Words in this poem
- 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.]
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- genial a.
- Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive. [L. genialis: cf. OF. genial. See Genius.]
- paly a.
- Pale; wanting color; dim. Shak. Whittier. [From Pale, a.]
- circlet n.
- A little circle; esp., an ornament for the person, having the form of a circle; that which encircles, as a ring, a bracelet, or a headband.
- heathy a.
- Full of heath; abounding with heath; as, heathy land; heathy hills.
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ode to Evening 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, Ode to Evening, in Poetical Works (1746), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29879, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/collins-poems/ode-to-evening-2.html, id L13372.
Form and metre
Ode to Evening is 23 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 35% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 --A-A- composed · strain · valeA · suit · hailA · return
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Now teach me, maid composed, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| To breathe some soften'd strain, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| May not unseemly with its stillness suit, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| As, musing slow, I hail | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thy genial loved return!" | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| "For when thy folding-star arising shows | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| His paly circlet, at his warning lamp | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The fragrant Hours, and Elves | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Who slept in buds the day, | 6 | ······ |
| And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge, | 10 | ·/········ |
| And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| The pensive Pleasures sweet, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Prepare thy shadowy car." | 7 | ˘/·/˘˘· |
| "Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Or find some ruin 'midst its dreary dells, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Whose walls more awful nod | 6 | ···/˘· |
| By thy religious gleams." | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| "That from the mountain's side | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Views wilds and swelling floods;" | 6 | ···/˘· |
| "----and marks o'er all | 4 | ···· |
| Thy dewy fingers draw | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The gradual dusky veil." | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
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.