Ode to Peace
O thou, who bad'st thy turtles bearSwift from his grasp thy golden hair,And sought'st thy native skies;When War, by vultures drawn from far,To Britain bent his iron car,And bade his storms arise!
Tired of his rude tyrannic sway,Our youth shall fix some festive day,His sullen shrines to burn:But thou who hear'st the turning spheres,What sounds may charm thy partial ears,And gain thy blest return!
O Peace, thy injured robes up-bind!O rise! and leave not one behindOf all thy beamy train;The British Lion, goddess sweet,Lies stretch'd on earth to kiss thy feet,And own thy holier reign.
Let others court thy transient smile,But come to grace thy western isle,By warlike Honour led;And, while around her ports rejoice,While all her sons adore thy choice,With him for ever wed!
Words in this poem
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- tyrannic a.
- Of or pertaining to a tyrant; suiting a tyrant; unjustly severe in government; absolute; imperious; despotic; cruel; arbitrary; as, a tyrannical prince; a tyrannical master; tyrannical government. [L. tyrannicus, Gr. tyrannique. See Tyrant.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- 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.]
- beamy a.
- Emitting beams of light; radiant; shining.
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ode to Peace 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 Peace, in Poetical Works (1746), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29879, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/collins-poems/ode-to-peace.html, id L13352.
Form and metre
Ode to Peace is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 8% 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 AABCCB bearA · hairA · skiesB · farC · carC · ariseB
- 2 AABCCB swayA · dayA · burnB · spheresC · earsC · returnB
- 3 AABCCB bindA · behindA · trainB · sweetC · feetC · reignB
- 4 AABCCB smileA · isleA · ledB · rejoiceC · choiceC · wedB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O thou, who bad'st thy turtles bear | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Swift from his grasp thy golden hair, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And sought'st thy native skies; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When War, by vultures drawn from far, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To Britain bent his iron car, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And bade his storms arise! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Tired of his rude tyrannic sway, | 10 | /˘˘······· |
| Our youth shall fix some festive day, | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| His sullen shrines to burn: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But thou who hear'st the turning spheres, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What sounds may charm thy partial ears, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And gain thy blest return! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| O Peace, thy injured robes up-bind! | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| O rise! and leave not one behind | 8 | ········ |
| Of all thy beamy train; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The British Lion, goddess sweet, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Lies stretch'd on earth to kiss thy feet, | 8 | ········ |
| And own thy holier reign. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Let others court thy transient smile, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But come to grace thy western isle, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| By warlike Honour led; | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| And, while around her ports rejoice, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| While all her sons adore thy choice, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| With him for ever wed! | 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.