An Ode II. 1
But, ah! a few there be whom griefs devour,And weeping woe, and disappointment keen,Repining penury, and sorrow sour,And self-consuming spleen.And these are Genius' favourites: theseKnow the thought-throned mind to please,And from her fleshy seat to drawTo realms where Fancy's golden orbits roll,Disdaining all but 'wildering rapture's law,The captivated soul.
Words in this poem
- disappointment n.
- The act of disappointing, or the state of being disappointed; defeat or failure of expectation or hope; miscarriage of design or plan; frustration. [Cf. F. désappointement.]
- penury n.
- Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme poverty; destitution. [L. penuria; cf. Gr. pénurie.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Ode II. 1 is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Henry Kirk White : With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas, Project Gutenberg ebook #7149; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Kirke White, An Ode II. 1, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/an-ode-ii-1.html, id L10101.
Form and metre
An Ode II. 1 is 10 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCCDEDE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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 ABABCCDEDE devourA · keenB · sourA · spleenB · theseC · pleaseC · drawD · rollE · lawD · soulE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| But, ah! a few there be whom griefs devour, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| And weeping woe, and disappointment keen, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Repining penury, and sorrow sour, | 11 | ···/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| And self-consuming spleen. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| And these are Genius' favourites: these | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Know the thought-throned mind to please, | 7 | ······· |
| And from her fleshy seat to draw | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To realms where Fancy's golden orbits roll, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Disdaining all but 'wildering rapture's law, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The captivated soul. | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
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.