Analysis of Ode to Joy
Wild and fearful in his cavern
Hid the naked troglodyte,
And the homeless nomad wandered
Laying waste the fertile plain.
Menacing with spear and arrow
In the woods the hunter strayed…
Woe to all poor wreteches stranded
On those cruel and hostile shores!
From the peak of high Olympus
Came the mother Ceres down,
Seeeking in those savage regions
Her lost daughter Prosperine.
But the Goddess found no refuge,
Found no kindly welcome there,
And no temple bearing witness
To the worship of the gods.
From the fields and from the vineyards
Came no fruit to deck the feasts,
Only flesh of blood-stained victims
Smouldered on the alter-fires,
And where'er the grieving goddess
Turns her melancholy gaze,
Sunk in vilest degradation
Man his loathsomeness displays.
Would he purge his soul from vileness
And attain to light and worth,
He must turn and cling forever
To his ancient Mother Earth.
Joy everlasting fostereth
The soul of all creation,
It is her secret ferment fires
The cup of life with flame.
'Tis at her beck the grass hath turned
Each blade toward the light
and solar systems have evolved
From chaos and dark night,
Filling the realms of boundless space
Beyond the sage's sight.
At bounteous nature's kindly breast,
All things that breath drink Joy,
And bird and beasts and creaping things
All follow where she leads.
Her gifts to man are friends in need,
The wreath, the foaming must,
To angels - visions of God's throne,
To insects - sensual lust.
Scheme | ABBXXBBCDXXAXXDX XXXEDFGF CHXH HGEXBBBBXB BXXXBBXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10100110 10101 0010110 1010101 10011010 0010101 1111110 11100101 10111010 1010101 1011010 01101 10101110 1110101 01101010 1010101 10101010 1111101 10111110 1101010 01001010 101001 101010 11101 1111111 0011101 11101010 1110101 10101 0111010 110100110 011111 11010111 110101 01010101 110011 10011101 010101 1110101 111111 0101011 110111 01111101 010101 11010111 111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,422 |
Words | 252 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 4, 10, 8 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 234 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 122 Views
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"Ode to Joy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3432/ode-to-joy>.
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