Horace. Book Ii. Ode X. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCD EEFGDF BBHIIH BJKLLM NNOPQO RRESST U DDVVWWXX| Receive dear friend the truths I teach | A |
| So shalt thou live beyond the reach | A |
| Of adverse fortune's power | B |
| Not always tempt the distant deep | C |
| Nor always timorously creep | C |
| Along the treacherous shore | D |
| - | |
| He that holds fast the golden mean | E |
| And lives contentedly between | E |
| The little and the great | F |
| Feels not the wants that pinch the poor | G |
| Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door | D |
| Imbittering all his state | F |
| - | |
| The tallest pines feels most the power | B |
| Of wintry blast the loftiest tower | B |
| Comes heaviest to the ground | H |
| The bolts that spare the mountain's side | I |
| His cloud clapt eminence divide | I |
| And spread the ruin round | H |
| - | |
| The well informed philosopher | B |
| Rejoices with a wholesome fear | J |
| And hopes in spite of pain | K |
| If winter bellow from the north | L |
| Soon the sweet spring comes dancing forth | L |
| And nature laughs again | M |
| - | |
| What if thine heaven be overcast | N |
| The dark appearance will not last | N |
| Expect a brighter sky | O |
| The God that strings the silver bow | P |
| Awakes sometimes the muses too | Q |
| And lays his arrows by | O |
| - | |
| If hindrances obstruct thy way | R |
| Thy magnanimity display | R |
| And let thy strength be seen | E |
| But oh if Fortune fill thy sail | S |
| With more than a propitious gale | S |
| Take half thy canvas in | T |
| - | |
| A REFLECTION ON THE FOREGOING ODE | U |
| - | |
| And is this all Can reason do no more | D |
| Than bid me shun the deep and dread the shore | D |
| Sweet moralist afloat on life's rough sea | V |
| The Christian has an art unknown to thee | V |
| He holds no parley with unmanly fears | W |
| Where duty bids he confidently steers | W |
| Faces a thousand dangers at her call | X |
| And trusting in his God surmount's them all | X |
William Cowper
(1)
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