Ode to Simplicity
"By all the honey'd storeOn Hybla's thymy shore,By all her blooms, and mingled murmurs dear,By her whose lovelorn woe,In evening musings slow,Sooth'd sweetly sad Electra's poet's ear."
~--------polydakrys d' aphikomênChronios idôn melathra, kai bômous theôn,Gymnasia th' oisin enetraphên, Dirkês, th' hydôr,Hôn ou dikaiôs apelatheis, xenên polinNaiô, di' ossôn nam echôn dakryrrhooun.All' ek gar algous algos au, se derkomaiKara xyrêkes, kai peplous melanchimousEchousan.~Eurip. Phoeniss. ver. 369.
"No more, in hall or bower,The passions own thy power,Love, only love, her forceless numbers mean."
Words in this poem
- thymy a.
- Abounding with thyme; fragrant; as, a thymy vale. Akenside.
- lovelorn a.
- Forsaken by one's love.
- algous a.
- Of or pertaining to the algæ, or seaweeds; abounding with, or like, seaweed. [L. algosus, fr. alga seaweed.]
- forceless a.
- Having little or no force; feeble.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ode to Simplicity 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 Simplicity, in Poetical Works (1746), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29879, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/collins-poems/ode-to-simplicity-2.html, id L13370.
Form and metre
Ode to Simplicity is 18 lines in 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 storeA · shoreA · dearB · woeC · slowC · earB
- 2 -A-A----- aphikomên · theônA · hydôr · polinA · dakryrrhooun · derkomai · melanchimous · echousan.~ · —
- 3 AA- bowerA · powerA · mean
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "By all the honey'd store | 6 | ······ |
| On Hybla's thymy shore, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| By all her blooms, and mingled murmurs dear, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| By her whose lovelorn woe, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| In evening musings slow, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Sooth'd sweetly sad Electra's poet's ear." | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| ~--------polydakrys d' aphikomên | 9 | ········· |
| Chronios idôn melathra, kai bômous theôn, | 11 | ··········· |
| Gymnasia th' oisin enetraphên, Dirkês, th' hydôr, | 12 | ˘/˘········· |
| Hôn ou dikaiôs apelatheis, xenên polin | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Naiô, di' ossôn nam echôn dakryrrhooun. | 10 | ·········· |
| All' ek gar algous algos au, se derkomai | 13 | ···/˘····/··· |
| Kara xyrêkes, kai peplous melanchimous | 11 | /˘········· |
| Echousan.~ | 3 | ··· |
| Eurip. Phoeniss. ver. 369. | 5 | ····· |
| "No more, in hall or bower, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The passions own thy power, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Love, only love, her forceless numbers mean." | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
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.