An Ode II. 2
And, oh! for what consumes his watchful oil?For what does thus he waste life's fleeting breath?'T is for neglect and penury he doth toil,'Tis for untimely death.Lo! where dejected pale he lies,Despair depicted in his eyes,He feels the vital flame decrease,He sees the grave wide yawning for its prey,Without a friend to soothe his soul to peace,And cheer the expiring ray.
Words in this poem
- penury n.
- Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme poverty; destitution. [L. penuria; cf. Gr. pénurie.]
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- expiring a.
- Breathing out air from the lungs; emitting fluid or volatile matter; exhaling; breathing the last breath; dying; ending; terminating.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Ode II. 2 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. 2, 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-2.html, id L10104.
Form and metre
An Ode II. 2 is 10 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCCDEDE. 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 8.8 syllables.
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 oilA · breathB · toilA · deathB · liesC · eyesC · decreaseD · preyE · peaceD · rayE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And, oh! for what consumes his watchful oil? | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| For what does thus he waste life's fleeting breath? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| 'T is for neglect and penury he doth toil, | 11 | ···˘/·/˘··· |
| 'Tis for untimely death. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Lo! where dejected pale he lies, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Despair depicted in his eyes, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| He feels the vital flame decrease, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| He sees the grave wide yawning for its prey, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Without a friend to soothe his soul to peace, | 10 | ·········· |
| And cheer the expiring ray. | 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.