Odes IV
Slowly the black earth gains upon the yellow,And the caked hill-side is ribbed soft with furrows.Turn now again, with voice and staff, my ploughman,Guiding thy oxen.
Lift the great ploughshare, clear the stones and brambles,Plant it the deeper, with thy foot upon it,Uprooting all the flowering weeds that bring notFood to thy children.
Patience is good for man and beast, and labourHardens to sorrow and the frost of winter.Turn then again, in the brave hope of harvest,Singing to heaven.
Words in this poem
- ploughman n.
- One who plows, or who holds and guides a plow; hence, a husbandman. Chaucer.
- ploughshare n.
- The share of a plow, or that part which cuts the slice of earth or sod at the bottom of the furrow. Plowshare bone (Anat.), the pygostyle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Odes IV 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 IV, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49721, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/santayana-poems/odes-iv.html, id L21736.
Form and metre
Odes IV is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Slowly the black earth gains upon the yellow, | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| And the caked hill-side is ribbed soft with furrows. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Turn now again, with voice and staff, my ploughman, | 11 | ··˘/······· |
| Guiding thy oxen. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Lift the great ploughshare, clear the stones and brambles, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Plant it the deeper, with thy foot upon it, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Uprooting all the flowering weeds that bring not | 11 | ˘/˘··/˘···· |
| Food to thy children. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Patience is good for man and beast, and labour | 11 | /˘·······/· |
| Hardens to sorrow and the frost of winter. | 11 | /˘·/˘····/˘ |
| Turn then again, in the brave hope of harvest, | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Singing to heaven. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
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.