Epode 1B
Hear ye the march as of the Earth-born FormsArrayed against the ever-living Gods?The crash and darkness of a thousand stormsBursting their inaccessible abodesOf crags and thunder-clouds?See ye the banners blazoned to the day,Inwrought with emblems of barbaric pride?Dissonant threats kill Silence far away,The serene Heaven which wraps our Eden wideWith iron light is dyed;The Anarchs of the North lead forth their legionsLike Chaos o'er creation, uncreating;An hundred tribes nourished on strange religionsAnd lawless slaveries,--down the aereal regionsOf the white Alps, desolating,Famished wolves that bide no waiting,Blotting the glowing footsteps of old glory,Trampling our columned cities into dust,Their dull and savage lustOn Beauty's corse to sickness satiating--They come! The fields they tread look black and hoaryWith fire--from their red feet the streams run gory!
Words in this poem
- inwrought p. p.
- Wrought or worked in or among other things; worked into any fabric so as to from a part of its texture; wrought or adorned, as with figures. [Pref. in- + wrought. Cf. Inwork.]
- barbaric a.
- Of, or from, barbarian nations; foreign; -- often with reference to barbarous nations of east. [L. barbaricus foreign, barbaric, Gr. .]
- dissonant a.
- Sounding harshly; discordant; unharmonious. [L. dissonans, -antis, p. pr. of dissonare to disagree in sound, be discordant; dis- + sonare to sound: cf. F. dissonant. See Sonant.]
- eden n.
- The garden where Adam and Eve first dwelt; hence, a delightful region or residence. [Heb. eden delight, pleasure; also, a place of pleasure, Eden.]
- chaos n.
- An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm. [L. chaos chaos (in senses 1 & 2), Gr. Chasm.]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- columned a.
- Having columns.
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- corse n.
- A living body or its bulk. [OF. cors, F. corps. See Corpse.]
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- gory a.
- Covered with gore or clotted blood. [From Gore.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epode 1B is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Epode 1B, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/epode-1b.html, id L16409.
Form and metre
Epode 1B is 22 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 41% 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 A-A--BCBCCDE-DEFGHHFGG formsA · gods · stormsA · abodes · clouds · dayB · prideC · awayB · wideC · dyedC · legionsD · uncreatingE · religions · regionsD · desolatingE · waitingF · gloryG · dustH · lustH · satiatingF · hoaryG · goryG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hear ye the march as of the Earth-born Forms | 10 | ·········· |
| Arrayed against the ever-living Gods? | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘· |
| The crash and darkness of a thousand storms | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Bursting their inaccessible abodes | 10 | /˘··˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Of crags and thunder-clouds? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| See ye the banners blazoned to the day, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Inwrought with emblems of barbaric pride? | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Dissonant threats kill Silence far away, | 10 | /˘˘··/˘·˘/ |
| The serene Heaven which wraps our Eden wide | 10 | ·˘//··//˘· |
| With iron light is dyed; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The Anarchs of the North lead forth their legions | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Like Chaos o'er creation, uncreating; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| An hundred tribes nourished on strange religions | 11 | ·/˘·/˘··˘/˘ |
| And lawless slaveries,--down the aereal regions | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| Of the white Alps, desolating, | 8 | ····/˘˘˘ |
| Famished wolves that bide no waiting, | 9 | ··˘····/˘ |
| Blotting the glowing footsteps of old glory, | 11 | /˘·/˘/···/˘ |
| Trampling our columned cities into dust, | 10 | /˘//˘/˘··· |
| Their dull and savage lust | 6 | ···/˘· |
| On Beauty's corse to sickness satiating-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| They come! The fields they tread look black and hoary | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| With fire--from their red feet the streams run gory! | 11 | ·/·······/˘ |
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.