An Ode III. 1
Genius, from thy starry throne,High above the burning zone,In radiant robe of light array'd,Oh! hear the plaint by thy sad favourite made,His melancholy moan.He tells of scorn, he tells of broken vows,Of sleepless nights, of anguish-ridden days,Pangs that his sensibility uprouseTo curse his being and his thirst for praise.Thou gavest to him with treble force to feelThe sting of keen neglect, the rich man's scorn,And what o'er all does in his soul presidePredominant, and tempers him to steel,His high indignant pride.
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- plaint n.
- Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament. Chaucer."The Psalmist's mournful plaint." [OE. plainte, pleynte, F. plainte, fr. L. plangere, planctum (plancta, fem. p.p.), to beat, beat the breast, lament. Cf. Complain, Plague, Plangent.]
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- uprouse v. t.
- To rouse up; to rouse from sleep; to awake; to arouse.
- indignant a.
- Affected with indignation; wrathful; passionate; irate; feeling wrath, as when a person is exasperated by unworthy or unjust treatment, by a mean action, or by a degrading accusation. [L. indignans, -antis, p. pr. of indignari to be indignant, disdain. See Indign.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Ode III. 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 III. 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-iii-1.html, id L10102.
Form and metre
An Ode III. 1 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 21% 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 AABBA-C-CD-EDE throneA · zoneA · array'dB · madeB · moanA · vows · daysC · uprouse · praiseC · feelD · scorn · presideE · steelD · prideE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Genius, from thy starry throne, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| High above the burning zone, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| In radiant robe of light array'd, | 9 | ·/˘˘···˘/ |
| Oh! hear the plaint by thy sad favourite made, | 11 | ··········· |
| His melancholy moan. | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| He tells of scorn, he tells of broken vows, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of sleepless nights, of anguish-ridden days, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Pangs that his sensibility uprouse | 10 | ····˘/˘˘˘/ |
| To curse his being and his thirst for praise. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thou gavest to him with treble force to feel | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| The sting of keen neglect, the rich man's scorn, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And what o'er all does in his soul preside | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Predominant, and tempers him to steel, | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| His high indignant pride. | 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.