Midsummer: An Ode
O Phoebus! down the western sky,Far hence diffuse thy burning ray,Thy light to distant worlds supply,And wake them to the cares of day.Come, gentle eve, the friend of care,Come, Cynthia, lovely queen of night!Refresh me with a cooling air,And cheer me with a lambent light:Lay me, where o'er the verdant groundHer living carpet nature spreads;Where the green bow'r, with roses crown'd,In show'rs its fragrant foliage sheds;Improve the peaceful hour with wine;Let musick die along the grove;Around the bowl let myrtles twine,And ev'ry strain be tun'd to love.Come, Stella, queen of all my heart!Come, born to fill its vast desires!Thy looks perpetual joys impart,Thy voice perpetual love inspires.Whilst, all my wish and thine complete,By turns we languish and we burn,Let sighing gales our sighs repeat,Our murmurs--murmuring brooks return,Let me, when nature calls to rest,And blushing skies the morn foretell,Sink on the down of Stella's breast,And bid the waking world farewell.
Words in this poem
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- cooling a.
- Adapted to cool and refresh; allaying heat.
- 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.]
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Midsummer: An Ode 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, Midsummer: An Ode, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/midsummer-an-ode.html, id L27135.
Form and metre
Midsummer: An Ode is 28 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABABCDCDEFEFG-G-H-H-IJIJKLKL skyA · rayB · supplyA · dayB · careC · nightD · airC · lightD · groundE · spreadsF · crown'dE · shedsF · wineG · grove · twineG · love · heartH · desires · impartH · inspires · completeI · burnJ · repeatI · returnJ · restK · foretellL · breastK · farewellL
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 Phoebus! down the western sky, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Far hence diffuse thy burning ray, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Thy light to distant worlds supply, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And wake them to the cares of day. | 8 | ········ |
| Come, gentle eve, the friend of care, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Come, Cynthia, lovely queen of night! | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Refresh me with a cooling air, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| And cheer me with a lambent light: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Lay me, where o'er the verdant ground | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her living carpet nature spreads; | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Where the green bow'r, with roses crown'd, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In show'rs its fragrant foliage sheds; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Improve the peaceful hour with wine; | 8 | ˘/·/˘/·· |
| Let musick die along the grove; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Around the bowl let myrtles twine, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And ev'ry strain be tun'd to love. | 8 | ········ |
| Come, Stella, queen of all my heart! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Come, born to fill its vast desires! | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Thy looks perpetual joys impart, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Thy voice perpetual love inspires. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Whilst, all my wish and thine complete, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| By turns we languish and we burn, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Let sighing gales our sighs repeat, | 8 | ·/˘·/·˘/ |
| Our murmurs--murmuring brooks return, | 8 | //˘/˘·˘/ |
| Let me, when nature calls to rest, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And blushing skies the morn foretell, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Sink on the down of Stella's breast, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And bid the waking world farewell. | 8 | ···/˘··/ |
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.