Analysis of An Ode : On Exodus iii. 14



On Exodus iii. 14. 'I am that I am.'

Man! foolish man!
Scarce know'st thou how thyself began,
Scarce hadst thou thought enough to prove thou art,
Yet, steel'd with studied boldness, thou darest try
To send thy doubting Reason's dazzled eye
Through the mysterious gulf of vast immensity;
Much thou canst there discern, much thence impart.
Vain wretch! suppress thy knowing pride,
Mortify thy learned lust:
Vain are thy thoughts while thou thyself art dust.

Let wit her sails, her oars let wisdom lend,
The helm let politic experience guide;
Yet cease to hope thy short-lived bark shall ride
Down spreading Fate's unnavigable tide.
What though still it farther tend?
Still 'tis farther from its end,
And, in the bosom of that boundless sea,
Still finds its error lengthen with its way.

With daring pride and insolent delight,
Your doubts resolved you boast, your labours crown'd,
And, EYPHKA your God, forsooth, is found
Incomprehensible and infinite.
But is he therefore found? vain searcher! no:
Let your imperfect definition show
That nothing you, the weak definer, know.

Say, why should the collected main
Itself within itself contain!
Why to its caverns should it sometimes creep,
And with delighted silence sleep
On the loved bosom of its parent deep.
Why should its numerous waters stay
In comely discipline and fair array,
Till winds and tides exert their high commands!
Then, prompt and ready to obey,
Why do the rising surges spread
Their opening ranks o'er earth's submissive head,
Marching through different paths to different lands?

Why does the constant sun
With measured steps his radiant journeys run?
Why does he order the diurnal hours
To leave earth's other part, and rise in ours?
Why does he wake the correspondent moon,
And fill her willing lamp with liquid light,
Commanding her with delegated powers
To beautify the world, and bless the night?
Why does each animated star
Love the just limits of its proper sphere,
Why does each consenting sign
With prudent harmony combine
In turns to move, and subsequent appear,
To gird the globe, and regulate the year?

Man does with dangerous curiosity
These unfathom'd wonders try:
With fancied rules and arbitrary laws
Matter and motion he restrains:
And studied lines and fictious circles draws:
Then with imagined sovereignty
Lord of his new hypothesis he reigns.
He reigns; how long? till some usurper rise!
And he, too, mighty thoughtful, mighty wise,
Studies new lines, and other circles feigns.
From this last toil again what knowledge flows?
Just as much, perhaps, as shows
That all his predecessor's rules
Were empty cant, all jargon of the schools:
That he on t'other's ruin rears his throne,
And shows his friend's mistake, and thence confirms his own.

On earth, in air, amidst the seas and skies,
Mountainous heaps of wonders rise,
Whose towering strength will ne'er submit
To Reason's batteries or the mines of Wit:
Yet still inquiring, still mistaking man,
Each hour repulsed, each hour dares onward press,
And, levelling at God his wandering guess,
(That feeble engine of his reasoning war,
Which guides his doubts and combats his despair)
Laws to his Maker the learn'd wretch can give,
Can bound that nature and prescribe that will
Whose pregnant Word did either ocean fill,
Can tell us whence all beings are, and how they move and live.
Through either ocean, foolish man!
That pregnant Word sent forth again
Might to a world extend each atom there,
For every drop call forth a sea, a heaven for every star.

Let cunning earth her fruitful wonders hide,
And only lift thy staggering reason up
To trembling Calvary's astonish'd top,
Then mock thy knowledge and confound thy pride.
Explaining how Perfection suffer'd pain,
Almighty languish'd, and Eternal died;
How by her patient victor Death was slain,
And earth profaned, yet bless'd with Deicide.
Then down with all thy boasted volumes, down;
Only reserve the sacred one:
Low, reverently low,
Make thy stubborn knowledge bow;
Weep out thy reason's and thy body's eyes;
Deject thyself that thou may'st rise:
To look to heaven, to blind to all below.

Then Faith for Reason's glimmering light shall give
Her immortal perspective,
And Grace's presence Nature's loss retrieve;
Then thy enliven'd soul shall see
That all the volumes of philosophy,
With all their comments, never could invent
So politic an instrument,
To reach the heaven of heavens, the high abode
Where M


Scheme X AABCCBBDEE FDDDFFGH IJJXKKK LLMMMHHNHOON PPQQXIQIRSTTSS GCUVUGVWWGXXYYZZ WW1 1 A2 2 X3 4 5 5 XAX3 R DXXDLDLBXPKXWWK 4 4 XGGXXXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1100111111 1101 11111101 1111011111 1111010111 111101101 1001001111 1111011101 11011101 10111 111111111 1101011101 0111001001 1111111111 110111 1111101 1110111 0001011101 1111010111 1101010001 110111111 0111111 001000100 111111101 110100101 11010111 11100101 01010101 1111011011 01010101 1011011101 111100101 0101000101 1101011101 11010101 11010101 110011010101 101100111001 110101 11011100101 11110001010 11110101010 111100101 0101011101 0100110010 110010101 1111001 1011011101 1110101 11010010 0111010001 110101001 1111000100 11101 110101001 10010101 010101101 11010100 1111010011 11111111 0111010101 1011010101 1111011101 1110111 1111001 0101110101 111110111 011101010111 1101010101 10011101 110011101 1110010111 11010010101 110011101101 011111001 11010111001 1111001101 1111001111 1111000111 1101110101 11111101011101 11010101 11011101 1101011101 11001110101011001 1101010101 01011100101 110010101 1111000111 0101010101 0101000101 1101010111 0111111 1111110101 10010101 110001 1110101 111101101 01111111 11110111101 1111100111 0010010 0101010101 11010111 1101010100 1111010101 1101100 110101100101 11
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 4,298
Words 732
Sentences 36
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 1, 10, 8, 7, 12, 14, 16, 17, 15, 9
Lines Amount 109
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 350
Words per stanza (avg) 73
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

3:47 min read
52

Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat. more…

All Matthew Prior poems | Matthew Prior Books

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