Ode II

Let me be reverent in the ways of right,
Lowly the paths I journey on;
Let all my words and actions keep
The laws of the pure universe
From highest Heaven handed down.
For Heaven is their bright nurse,
Those generations of the realism of light;
Ah, never of mortal kind were they begot,
Nor are they slaves of memory, lost in sleep:
Their Father is greater than Time, and ages not.

page 46.


Imagery: handed down, like a "father figure" is somehow at play

Syntax: Notice how a semicolon is on the end of a line before or after a line that ends in a comma, and no other commas are around, except on the line which ends with "light;"

Interesting word choice: "ways of right", "laws of the pure", "highest Heaven", realism of light", "slaves of memory", "ages not"

This is comparative to something.

I believe this is all one large allusion to "justice" and those who are just.

"For heaven is their bright nurse" is an interesting tidbit because it shows that the Chorus believed that Heaven, High Heavne, at that, was the place for justice to originate (if it is indeed about justice)

The way that the author uses "let my" at the begining of the 1st and 2nd sentence suggest that some do not practice the ways being written about. This portrays some desire to hand down the "justice" from the highest/most just places.