Ode (Bards of Passion and of Mirth)
Bards of Passion and of Mirth,Ye have left your souls on earth!Have ye souls in heaven too,Double-lived in regions new?Yes, and those of heaven communeWith the spheres of sun and moon;With the noise of fountains wond'rous,And the parle of voices thund'rous;With the whisper of heaven's treesAnd one another, in soft easeSeated on Elysian lawnsBrows'd by none but Dian's fawnsUnderneath large blue-bells tented,Where the daisies are rose-scented,And the rose herself has gotPerfume which on earth is not;Where the nightingale doth singNot a senseless, tranced thing,But divine melodious truth;Philosophic numbers smooth;Tales and golden historiesOf heaven and its mysteries.
Thus ye live on high, and thenOn the earth ye live again;And the souls ye left behind youTeach us, here, the way to find you,Where your other souls are joying,Never slumber'd, never cloying.Here, your earth-born souls still speakTo mortals, of their little week;Of their sorrows and delights;Of their passions and their spites;Of their glory and their shame;What doth strengthen and what maim.Thus ye teach us, every day,Wisdom, though fled far away.
Bards of Passion and of Mirth,Ye have left your souls on earth!Ye have souls in heaven too,Double-lived in regions new!
Words in this poem
- commune n.
- The commonalty; the common people. [F., fr. commun. See Common.]
- parle v. i.
- To talk; to converse; to parley. [F. parler. See Parley.]
- elysian a.
- Pertaining, or the abode of the blessed after death; hence, yielding the highest pleasures; exceedingly delightful; beatific. [L. Elysius, fr. Elysium.]
- tented a.
- Covered with tents.
- philosophic a.
- Of or pertaining to philosophy; versed in, or imbued with, the principles of philosophy; hence, characterizing a philosopher; rational; wise; temperate; calm; cool. [L. philosophicus: cf. F. philosophique.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ode (Bards of Passion and of Mirth) is in the public domain. This text is taken from Keats: Poems Published in 1820 (Clarendon Press, 1909, ed. M. Robertson), Project Gutenberg ebook #23684; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Keats, Ode (Bards of Passion and of Mirth), in Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #23684, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/keats-1820/ode-bards-of-passion-and-of-mirth.html, id L00188.
Form and metre
Ode (Bards of Passion and of Mirth) is 40 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII--JJ mirthA · earthA · tooB · newB · communeC · moonC · wond'rousD · thund'rousD · treesE · easeE · lawnsF · fawnsF · tentedG · scentedG · gotH · notH · singI · thingI · truth · smooth · historiesJ · mysteriesJ
- 2 AABBCCDD--EEFF thenA · againA · youB · youB · joyingC · cloyingC · speakD · weekD · delights · spites · shameE · maimE · dayF · awayF
- 3 AABB mirthA · earthA · tooB · newB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bards of Passion and of Mirth, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Ye have left your souls on earth! | 7 | ······· |
| Have ye souls in heaven too, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Double-lived in regions new? | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Yes, and those of heaven commune | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| With the spheres of sun and moon; | 7 | ······· |
| With the noise of fountains wond'rous, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And the parle of voices thund'rous; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| With the whisper of heaven's trees | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| And one another, in soft ease | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Seated on Elysian lawns | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| Brows'd by none but Dian's fawns | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Underneath large blue-bells tented, | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Where the daisies are rose-scented, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And the rose herself has got | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Perfume which on earth is not; | 7 | ˘/····· |
| Where the nightingale doth sing | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Not a senseless, tranced thing, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| But divine melodious truth; | 8 | ·˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Philosophic numbers smooth; | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Tales and golden histories | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Of heaven and its mysteries. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Thus ye live on high, and then | 7 | ······· |
| On the earth ye live again; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And the souls ye left behind you | 8 | ········ |
| Teach us, here, the way to find you, | 8 | ········ |
| Where your other souls are joying, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Never slumber'd, never cloying. | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Here, your earth-born souls still speak | 7 | ······· |
| To mortals, of their little week; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of their sorrows and delights; | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Of their passions and their spites; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Of their glory and their shame; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What doth strengthen and what maim. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Thus ye teach us, every day, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Wisdom, though fled far away. | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Bards of Passion and of Mirth, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Ye have left your souls on earth! | 7 | ······· |
| Ye have souls in heaven too, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Double-lived in regions new! | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
Notes from the edition 12
Introduction and notes by M. Robertson, Keats: Poems Published in 1820 (Clarendon Press, 1909).
- Stanza 1, line 1 Bards, poets and singers.
- Stanza 1, line 8 parle, French parler. Cf. Hamlet, I. i. 62.
- Stanza 1, line 12 Dian's fawns. Diana was the goddess of hunting.
- Stanza 1, line 1 Lethe. See Lamia, i. 81, note.
- Stanza 1, line 2 Wolf's-bane, aconite or hellebore--a poisonous plant.
- Stanza 1, line 4 nightshade, a deadly poison.
ruby . . . Proserpine. Cf. Swinburne's Garden of Proserpine.
Proserpine. Cf. Lamia, i. 63, note. - Stanza 1, line 5 yew-berries. The yew, a dark funereal-looking tree, is constantly planted in churchyards.
- Stanza 1, line 7 your mournful Psyche. See Introduction to the Ode to Psyche, p. 236.
- Stanza 1, line 12 weeping cloud. l. 14. shroud. Giving a touch of mystery and sadness to the otherwise light and tender picture.
- Stanza 1, line 16 on . . . sand-wave, the iridescence sometimes seen on the ribbed sand left by the tide.
- Stanza 1, line 21 She, i.e. Melancholy--now personified as a goddess. Compare this conception of melancholy with the passage in Lamia, i. 190-200. Cf. also Milton's personifications of Melancholy in L'Allegro and Il Penseroso.
- Stanza 2, line 8 cloudy, mysteriously concealed, seen of few.
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