Ode to Pity
"By Pella's bard, a magic name,By all the griefs his thoughts could frame,Receive my humble rite:Long, Pity, let the nations viewThy sky-worn robes of tenderest blue,And eyes of dewy light!"
~Hêgou paroithe, thygater, hôs typhlô podiOphthalmos ei su, nautiloisin astron hôs?Deur' eis to leuron pedon ichnos titheis' emon,Probaine------~Act. III. Sc. I.
"--give us back the image of the mind."
"Wild Arun too has heard thy strains,And Echo, 'midst my native plains,Been soothed by Pity's lute."
"There first the wren thy myrtles shedOn gentlest Otway's infant head."
About this text
Ode to Pity 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 Pity, in Ode to Evening, and Other Poems (1746), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29879, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/collins-poems/ode-to-pity-2.html, id L13368.
Form and metre
Ode to Pity is 17 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 20% 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 nameA · frameA · riteB · viewC · blueC · lightB
- 2 -A-A- podi · — · emon · — · i
- 4 AA- strainsA · plainsA · lute
- 5 AA shedA · headA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "By Pella's bard, a magic name, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| By all the griefs his thoughts could frame, | 8 | ········ |
| Receive my humble rite: | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Long, Pity, let the nations view | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thy sky-worn robes of tenderest blue, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| And eyes of dewy light!" | 6 | ···/˘· |
| ~Hêgou paroithe, thygater, hôs typhlô podi | 11 | ··········· |
| Ophthalmos ei su, nautiloisin astron hôs? | 12 | ············ |
| Deur' eis to leuron pedon ichnos titheis' emon, | 13 | ············· |
| Probaine------~ | 2 | ·· |
| Act. III. Sc. I. | 4 | ···· |
| "--give us back the image of the mind." | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| "Wild Arun too has heard thy strains, | 8 | ········ |
| And Echo, 'midst my native plains, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Been soothed by Pity's lute." | 6 | ···/˘· |
| "There first the wren thy myrtles shed | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| On gentlest Otway's infant head." | 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.