Analysis of An Ode : While Blooming Youth And Gay Delight
Matthew Prior 1664 – 1721
While blooming youth and gay delight
Sit on thy rosy cheeks confess'd,
Thou hast, my dear, undoubted right
To triumph o'er this destined breast.
My reason bends to what thy eyes ordain;
For I was born to love, and thou to reign.
But would you meanly thus rely
On power you know I must obey?
Exert a legal tyranny,
And do an ill because you may?
Still must I thee, as Atheists Heaven, adore;
Not see thy mercy, and yet dread thy power?
Take heed, my dear: youth flies apace;
As well as Cupid, Time is blind:
Soon must those glories of thy face
The fate of vulgar beauty find:
The thousand Loves, that arm thy potent eye,
Must drop their quivers, flag their wings, and die.
Then wilt thou sigh, when in each frown
A hateful wrinkle more appears:
And putting peevish humours on,
Seems but the sad effect of years:
Kindness itself too weak a charm will prove
To raise the feeble fires of aged love.
Forced compliments, and formal bows,
Will show thee just above neglect;
The heat with which thy lover glows,
Will settle into cold respect:
A talking dull Platonic I shall turn;
Learn to be civil, when I cease to burn.
Then, shun the ill, and know, my dear,
Kindness and constancy will prove
The only pillars, fit to bear
So vast a weight as that of love.
If thou canst wish to make my flames endure,
Thine must be very fierce, and very pure.
Haste, Celia, haste, while youth invites,
Obey kind Cupid's present voice;
Fill every sense with soft delights,
And give thy soul a loose to joys:
Let millions of repeated blisses prove
That thou all kindness art, and I all love.
Be mine, and only mine; take care
Thy looks, thy thoughts, thy dreams, to guide
To me alone; nor come so far,
As liking any youth beside:
What men e'er court thee, fly them, and believe
They're serpents all, and thou the tempted Eve.
So shall I court thy dearest truth,
When beauty ceases to engage;
So, thinking on thy charming youth,
I'll love it o'er again in age;
So time itself our raptures shall improve,
While still we wake to joy, and live to love.
Scheme | ABABCC DEXEXX FGFGDD XHXHIJ XKXKLL XIMJNN OXOXIJ MPXPQQ RSRSIJ |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 11110101 11110101 110101101 1101111101 1111110111 1111101 110111101 01010100 01110111 111111001001 11110011110 11111101 11110111 11110111 01110101 0101111101 111111101 11111011 01010101 0101011 11010111 1001110111 1101010111 11000101 11110101 01111101 11001101 0101010111 1111011111 11010111 10010011 01010111 11011111 1111111101 1111010101 11011101 0111101 110011101 01110111 110101011 1111010111 11010111 11111111 11011111 11010101 11101111001 1101010101 11111101 11010101 11011101 111100101 1101101101 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,984 |
Words | 379 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 174 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:55 min read
- 68 Views
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"An Ode : While Blooming Youth And Gay Delight" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/27332/an-ode-%3A-while-blooming-youth-and-gay-delight>.
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