Evening: An Ode, to Stella
Ev'ning now from purple wingsSheds the grateful gifts she brings;Brilliant drops bedeck the mead,Cooling breezes shake the reed;Shake the reed, and curl the stream,Silver'd o'er with Cynthia's beam;Near the checquer'd, lonely grove,Hears, and keeps thy secrets, love.Stella, thither let us stray,Lightly o'er the dewy way.Phoebus drives his burning carHence, my lovely Stella, far;In his stead, the queen of nightRound us pours a lambent light;Light, that seems but just to showBreasts that beat, and cheeks that glow.Let us now, in whisper'd joy,Ev'ning's silent hours employ;Silence best, and conscious shades,Please the hearts that love invades;Other pleasures give them pain,Lovers all but love disdain.
Words in this poem
- bedeck v. t.
- To deck, ornament, or adorn; to grace.
- cooling a.
- Adapted to cool and refresh; allaying heat.
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- lambent a.
- Playing on the surface; touching lightly; gliding over. [L. lambens, -enlis, p. pr. of lambere to lick; akin to lap. See Lap to drink by licking.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Evening: An Ode, to Stella is in the public domain. This text is taken from Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 (The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes, 1825), Project Gutenberg ebook #10835; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Johnson, Evening: An Ode, to Stella, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/evening-an-ode-to-stella.html, id L27141.
Form and metre
Evening: An Ode, to Stella is 22 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK wingsA · bringsA · meadB · reedB · streamC · beamC · groveD · loveD · strayE · wayE · carF · farF · nightG · lightG · showH · glowH · joyI · employI · shadesJ · invadesJ · painK · disdainK
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ev'ning now from purple wings | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sheds the grateful gifts she brings; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Brilliant drops bedeck the mead, | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| Cooling breezes shake the reed; | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Shake the reed, and curl the stream, | 7 | ······· |
| Silver'd o'er with Cynthia's beam; | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Near the checquer'd, lonely grove, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Hears, and keeps thy secrets, love. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Stella, thither let us stray, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Lightly o'er the dewy way. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Phoebus drives his burning car | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Hence, my lovely Stella, far; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| In his stead, the queen of night | 7 | ······· |
| Round us pours a lambent light; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Light, that seems but just to show | 7 | ······· |
| Breasts that beat, and cheeks that glow. | 7 | ······· |
| Let us now, in whisper'd joy, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Ev'ning's silent hours employ; | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘/ |
| Silence best, and conscious shades, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Please the hearts that love invades; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Other pleasures give them pain, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Lovers all but love disdain. | 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.