Odes III
Gathering the echoes of forgotten wisdom,And mastered by a proud, adventurous purpose,Columbus sought the golden shores of IndiaOpposite Europe.
He gave the world another world, and ruinBrought upon blameless, river-loving nations,Cursed Spain with barren gold, and made the AndesFiefs of Saint Peter;
While in the cheerless North the thrifty SaxonPlanted his corn, and, narrowing his bosom,Made covenant with God, and by keen virtueTrebled his riches.
What venture hast thou left us, bold Columbus?What honour left thy brothers, brave Magellan?Daily the children of the rich for pastimeCircle the planet.
And what good comes to us of all your dangers?A smaller earth and smaller hope of heaven.Ye have but cheapened gold, and, measuring ocean,Counted the islands.
No Ponce de Leon shall drink in fountains,On any flowering Easter, youth eternal;No Cortes look upon another ocean;No Alexander
Found in the Orient dim a boundless kingdom,And, clothing his Greek strength in barbarous splendour,Build by the sea his throne, while sacred EgyptHonours his godhead.
The earth, the mother once of godlike TheseusAnd mighty Heracles, at length is weary,And now brings forth a spawn of antlike creatures,Blackening her valleys,
Inglorious in their birth and in their living,Curious and querulous, afraid of battle,Rummaging earth for coals, in camps of hovelsCrouching from winter,
As if grim fate, amid our boastful prating,Made us the image of our brutish fathers,When from their caves they issued, crazed with terror,Howling and hungry.
For all things come about in sacred cycles,And life brings death, and light eternal darkness,And now the world grows old apace; its gloryPasses for ever.
Perchance the earth will yet for many agesBear her dead child, her moon, around her orbit;Strange craft may tempt the ocean streams, new forestsCover the mountains.
If in those latter days men still rememberOur wisdom and our travail and our sorrow,They never can be happy, with that burdenHeavy upon them,
Knowing the hideous past, the blood, the famine,The ancestral hate, the eager faith's disaster,All ending in their little lives, and vulgarCircle of troubles.
But if they have forgot us, and the shiftingOf sands has buried deep our thousand cities,Fell superstition then will seize upon them;Protean error,
Will fill their panting heart with sickly phantomsOf sudden blinding good and monstrous evil;There will be miracles again, and torment,Dungeon, and fagot,--
Until the patient earth, made dry and barren,Sheds all her herbage in a final winter,And the gods turn their eyes to some far distantBright constellation.
Words in this poem 19
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
- narrowing n.
- The act of contracting, or of making or becoming less in breadth or extent.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- pastime n.
- That which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably; sport; amusement; diversion. [Pass + time: cf. F. passetemps.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- cortes n.
- The legislative assembly, composed of nobility, clergy, and representatives of cities, which in Spain and in Portugal answers, in some measure, to the Parliament of Great Britain. [Sp. & Pg., fr. corte court.]
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- inglorious a.
- Not glorious; not bringing honor or glory; not accompanied with fame, honor, or celebrity; obscure; humble; as, an inglorious life of ease. [L. inglorious; pref. in- not + gloria glory, fame: cf. F. inglorieux. See Glory.]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- querulous a.
- Given to quarreling; quarrelsome. land. [L. querulus and querulosus, fr. queri to complain. Cf. Cry, v., Quarrel a brawl, Quarrelous.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- brutish a.
- Pertaining to, or resembling, a brute or brutes; of a cruel, gross, and stupid nature; coarse; unfeeling; unintelligent.
- apace adv.
- With a quick pace; quick; fast; speedily. [Pref. a- + pace. OE. a pas at a walk, in which a is the article. See Pace.]
- craft n.
- Strength; might; secret power. [AS. cr strength, skill, art, cunning; akin to OS., G., Sw., & Dan. kraft strength, D. kracht, Icel. kraptr; perh. originally, a drawing together, stretching, fr]
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- disaster n.
- An unpropitious or baleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent. [F. désastre; pref. dés- (L. dis-) + astre star, fr. L. astrum; a word of astrological origin. See Aster, Astral, Star.]
- protean a.
- Of or pertaining to Proteus; characteristic of Proteus.
- dungeon n.
- A close, dark prison, commondonjon or keep of a castle, these being used as prisons. [OE. donjoun highest tower of a castle, tower, prison, F. donjon tower or platform in the midst of a castle, turret, or closet on the top of a house, a keep of a]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Odes III is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #49721; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Santayana, Odes III, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49721, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/santayana-poems/odes-iii.html, id L21735.
Form and metre
Odes III is 68 lines in 17 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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.
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Gathering the echoes of forgotten wisdom, | 11 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| And mastered by a proud, adventurous purpose, | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘/˘ |
| Columbus sought the golden shores of India | 11 | ˘/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Opposite Europe. | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| He gave the world another world, and ruin | 11 | ····˘/˘··/˘ |
| Brought upon blameless, river-loving nations, | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Cursed Spain with barren gold, and made the Andes | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Fiefs of Saint Peter; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| While in the cheerless North the thrifty Saxon | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Planted his corn, and, narrowing his bosom, | 11 | /˘···/˘˘·/˘ |
| Made covenant with God, and by keen virtue | 11 | ·/˘˘·····/˘ |
| Trebled his riches. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| What venture hast thou left us, bold Columbus? | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| What honour left thy brothers, brave Magellan? | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Daily the children of the rich for pastime | 11 | /˘·/˘····/· |
| Circle the planet. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| And what good comes to us of all your dangers? | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| A smaller earth and smaller hope of heaven. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Ye have but cheapened gold, and, measuring ocean, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘/ |
| Counted the islands. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| No Ponce de Leon shall drink in fountains, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| On any flowering Easter, youth eternal; | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| No Cortes look upon another ocean; | 10 | ·····˘/˘/˘ |
| No Alexander | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Found in the Orient dim a boundless kingdom, | 12 | ···/˘···/˘/˘ |
| And, clothing his Greek strength in barbarous splendour, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Build by the sea his throne, while sacred Egypt | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Honours his godhead. | 5 | /˘·/· |
| The earth, the mother once of godlike Theseus | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| And mighty Heracles, at length is weary, | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| And now brings forth a spawn of antlike creatures, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Blackening her valleys, | 6 | /˘˘·/˘ |
| Inglorious in their birth and in their living, | 11 | ˘/˘······/˘ |
| Curious and querulous, afraid of battle, | 11 | /˘·/˘˘˘/·/˘ |
| Rummaging earth for coals, in camps of hovels | 11 | /˘˘······/˘ |
| Crouching from winter, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| As if grim fate, amid our boastful prating, | 11 | ····˘///˘·· |
| Made us the image of our brutish fathers, | 11 | ···/˘·//˘/˘ |
| When from their caves they issued, crazed with terror, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Howling and hungry. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| For all things come about in sacred cycles, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| And life brings death, and light eternal darkness, | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| And now the world grows old apace; its glory | 11 | ······˘/·/˘ |
| Passes for ever. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Perchance the earth will yet for many ages | 11 | ˘/·····/˘/˘ |
| Bear her dead child, her moon, around her orbit; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Strange craft may tempt the ocean streams, new forests | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Cover the mountains. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| If in those latter days men still remember | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| Our wisdom and our travail and our sorrow, | 11 | //˘·/˘/·//˘ |
| They never can be happy, with that burden | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Heavy upon them, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Knowing the hideous past, the blood, the famine, | 11 | /·/˘˘····/˘ |
| The ancestral hate, the eager faith's disaster, | 12 | ·˘/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| All ending in their little lives, and vulgar | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Circle of troubles. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| But if they have forgot us, and the shifting | 11 | ····˘/···/˘ |
| Of sands has buried deep our thousand cities, | 11 | ···/˘·//˘/˘ |
| Fell superstition then will seize upon them; | 11 | ··˘/˘······ |
| Protean error, | 5 | ˘/˘/˘ |
| Will fill their panting heart with sickly phantoms | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Of sudden blinding good and monstrous evil; | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| There will be miracles again, and torment, | 10 | ···/˘˘/·˘/ |
| Dungeon, and fagot,-- | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Until the patient earth, made dry and barren, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Sheds all her herbage in a final winter, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And the gods turn their eyes to some far distant | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Bright constellation. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
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