Analysis of Birth-Day Ode 02
Robert Southey 1774 (Bristol) – 1843 (London)
Small is the new-born plant scarce seen
Amid the soft encircling green,
Where yonder budding acorn rears,
Just o'er the waving grass, its tender head:
Slow pass along the train of years,
And on the growing plant, their dews and showers they shed.
Anon it rears aloft its giant form,
And spreads its broad-brown arms to meet the storm.
Beneath its boughs far shadowing o'er the plain,
From summer suns, repair the grateful village train.
Nor BEDFORD will my friend survey
The book of Nature with unheeding eye;
For never beams the rising orb of day,
For never dimly dies the refluent ray,
But as the moralizer marks the sky,
He broods with strange delight upon futurity.
And we must muse my friend! maturer years
Arise, and other Hopes and other Fears,
For we have past the pleasant plains of Youth.
Oh pleasant plains! that we might stray
For ever o'er your faery ground--
For ever roam your vales around,
Nor onward tempt the dangerous way--
For oh--what numerous foes assail
The Traveller, from that chearful vale!
With toil and heaviness opprest
Seek not the flowery bank for rest,
Tho' there the bowering woodbine spread
Its fragrant shelter o'er thy head,
Tho' Zephyr there should linger long
To hear the sky-lark's wildly-warbled song,
There heedless Youth shalt thou awake
The vengeance of the coiling snake!
Tho' fairly smiles the vernal mead
To tempt thy pilgrim feet, proceed
Hold on thy steady course aright,
Else shalt thou wandering o'er the pathless plain,
When damp and dark descends the night
Shivering and shelterless, repent in vain.
And yet--tho' Dangers lurk on every side
Receive not WORLDLY WISDOM for thy guide!
Beneath his care thou wilt not know
The throb of unavailing woe,
No tear shall tremble in thine eye
Thy breast shall struggle with no sigh,
He will security impart,
But he will apathize thy heart!
Ah no!
Fly Fly that fatal foe,
Virtue shall shrink from his torpedo grasp--
For not more fatal thro' the Wretches veins
Benumb'd in Death's cold pains
Creeps the chill poison of the deadly asp.
Serener joys my friend await
Maturer manhood's steady state.
The wild brook bursting from its source
Meanders on its early course,
Delighting there with winding way
Amid the vernal vale to stray,
Emerging thence more widely spread
It foams along its craggy bed,
And shatter'd with the mighty shock
Rushes from the giddy rock--
Hurl'd headlong o'er the dangerous steep
On runs the current to the deep,
And gathering waters as it goes
Serene and calm the river flows,
Diffuses plenty o'er the smiling coast,
Rolls on its stately waves and is in ocean lost.
Scheme | AABCBCDDEE FGFFGC BBXFHHFII CXCCJJKK LLCEXE MMNNGGOO NNPQQP RRSSFFCCTTUUVVXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 010101001 11010101 11001011101 11010111 0101011101011 111011101 0111111101 011111001001 110101010101 11011101 01110111 1101010111 110101011 1101101 111101011 01111111 0101010101 1111010111 11011111 11010111 11011101 110101001 111100101 01001111 11011 110100111 110111 110101011 11011101 1101110101 1111101 0101011 11010101 11110101 1111011 11110010011 11010101 100010101 01110111001 0111010111 01111111 0110101 11110011 11110111 11010001 111111 11 111101 101111011 111101011 10111 1011010101 111101 11101 01110111 01011101 01011101 01010111 01011101 11011101 01010101 1010101 111001001 11010101 010010111 01010101 01010100101 111101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,599 |
Words | 446 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 6, 9, 8, 6, 8, 6, 16 |
Lines Amount | 69 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 257 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:17 min read
- 49 Views
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"Birth-Day Ode 02" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31832/birth-day-ode-02>.
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