Analysis of A Song For St. Cecilia's Day, At Oxford
Joseph Addison 1672 (Milston) – 1719 (Holland House, London)
I.
Cecilia, whose exalted hymns
With joy and wonder fill the blest,
In choirs of warbling seraphims
Known and distinguish'd fom the rest;
Attend, harmonious saint, and see
Thy vocal sons of harmony;
Attend, harmonious saint, and hear our prayers;
Enliven all our earthly airs,
and, as thou sing'st thy God, teach us to sing of thee:
Tune every string and every tongue,
Be thou the Muse and subject of our song.
II.
Let all Cecilia's praise proclaim,
Enploy the echo in her name.
Hark how the flutes and trumpets raise,
At bright Cecilia's name, their lays;
The organ labours in her praise.
Cecilia's name does all our numbers grace,
From every voice the tuneful accents fly,
In soaring trebles now it rises high,
And now it sinks, and dwells upon the base.
Cecilia's name through all the notes we sing,
The work of every skilful tongue
The sound of every trembling string,
The sound and triumph of our song.
III.
For ever consecrate the day,
To music and Cecilia;
Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.
Music can noble hints impart,
Engender fury, kindle love;
With unsuspected eloquence can move,
And manage all the man with secret art.
When Orpheus strikes the trembling lyre
The streams stand still, the stones admire;
The listening savages advance,
The world and lamb around him trip
The bears in aukward measures leap,
And tigers mingle in the dance
The moving woods attended as he played
And Rhodope was left without a shade.
IV.
Music religious heats inspires,
It wakes the soul, and lifts it high,
And wings it with sublime desires,
And fits it to bespeak the Deity.
Th' Almighty listens to a tuneful tongue,
And seems well-pleas'd and courted with a song.
Soft moving sounds and heavenly airs
Give forece to every word, and recommend our prayers
When time itself shall be no more,
And all things in confusion hurl'd,
Music shall then exert its power,
And sound survive the ruins of the world:
Then saints and angels shall agree
In one eternal jubilee:
All heaven shall echo with their hymns divine,
And God himself with pleasure see
The whole creation in a chorus join.
C H O R U S.
Consecrate the place and day,
To music and Cecilia Let no rough winds approach, nor dare
Invade the hallow'd bounds,
Nor rudely shake the tuneful air,
Nor spoil the fleeting sounds.
Nor mournful sigh nor groan be heard,
But gladness dwell on every tongue;
Whilst all, with voice and strings prepar'd,
Keep u; the loud harmonious song.
And imitate the blest above,
In joy, and harmony, and love.
Scheme | ABCBCDDEEDFG AHHIIIJAAJKFKG ALXMMNOXNPPQXXQRR OXAXDFGEEXSXSDDXDX XLTUTUXFXGOO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 01010101 11010101 0111001 10010101 010100101 11011100 010100101101 010110101 0111111111111 1100101001 11010011101 1 111101 1010001 11010101 111111 0101001 111110101 11001010101 010111101 0111010101 11110111 01110011 0111001001 010101101 1 1101001 1100010 1001011101 011101101 10110101 01010101 101010011 0101011101 1100101001 01110101 010010001 01010111 0101101 01010001 0101010111 01110101 1 10010101 11010111 011101010 0111010100 110101010101 0111010101 110101001 1111001001101 11011111 01100101 101101110 0101010101 11010101 0101010 11011011101 01011101 0101000101 111111 100101 110001011110111 010101 11010101 110101 11011111 11111001 11110101 110101001 0100101 01010001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,526 |
Words | 446 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 14, 17, 18, 12 |
Lines Amount | 73 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 398 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 89 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:16 min read
- 122 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Song For St. Cecilia's Day, At Oxford" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24489/a-song-for-st.-cecilia%27s-day%2C-at-oxford>.
Discuss this Joseph Addison poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In