Analysis of Ode To Evening
William Collins 1721 (Chichester) – 1759 (Chichester)
If aught of oaten stop or pastoral song
May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear,
Like thy own solemn springs,
Thy springs, and dying gales,
O nymph reserved, while now the bright-haired sun
Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts,
With brede ethereal wove,
O'erhang his wavy bed:
Now air is hushed, save where the weak-eyed bat
With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing,
Or where the beetle winds
His small but sullen horn,
As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum:
Now teach me, maid composed,
To breathe some softened strain,
Whose numbers stealing through thy dark'ning vale
May not unseemly with its stillness suit,
As, musing slow, I hail
Thy genial loved return!
For when thy folding-star arising shows
His paly circlet, at his warning lamp
The fragrant hours, and elves
Who slept in buds the day,
And many a nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge
And sheds the fresh'ning dew, and lovelier still,
The pensive pleasures sweet
Prepare thy shadowy car.
Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene,
Or find some ruin 'midst its dreary dells,
Whose walls more awful nod
By thy religious gleams.
Or if chill blust'ring winds or driving rain
Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut
That from the mountain's side
Views wilds and swelling floods
And hamlets brown and dim-discovered spires,
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
Thy dewy fingers draw
The gradual dusky veil.
While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont,
And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve;
While Summer loves to sport
Beneath thy lingering light;
While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves;
Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,
Affrights thy shrinking train
And rudely rends thy robes;
So long, regardful of thy quiet rule,
Shall fancy, friendship, science, smiling peace,
Thy gentlest influence own,
And love thy favourite name!
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111001 1111111101 111101 110101 1101110111 1011011101 1101001 11101 1111110111 111111111 110101 111101 111101011 010101011 111101 111101 1101011111 1101011101 110111 110101 1111010101 11111101 0101001 110101 01001110111 010111011 010101 0111001 111111011 1111011101 111101 110101 1111111101 0111011101 110101 110101 0101010101 01110101101 110101 010011 11111101111 011101011 110111 0111001 111011111 110101011 11101 010111 11111101 1101010101 11001001 01111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,857 |
Words | 326 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 12, 8, 12, 12 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 302 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 65 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 09, 2023
- 1:39 min read
- 116 Views
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