Prologue to Pacchiarotto
Oh, the old wall here! How I could passLife in a long midsummer day,My feet confined to a plot of grass,My eyes from a wall not once away!
And lush and lithe do the creepers clotheYon wall I watch, with a wealth of green:Its bald red bricks draped, nothing loth,In lappets of tangle they laugh between.
Now, what is it makes pulsate the robe?Why tremble the sprays? What life o'erbrimsThe body--the house, no eye can probe--Divined as, beneath a robe, the limbs?
And there again! But my heart may guessWho tripped behind; and she sang perhaps;So, the old wall throbbed, and its life's excessDied out and away in the leafy wraps!
Wall upon wall are between us; lifeAnd song should away from heart to heart!I--prison-bird, with a ruddy strifeAt breast, and a lip whence storm-notes start--
Hold on, hope hard in the subtle thingThat's spirit: though cloistered fast, soar free;Account as wood, brick, stone, this ringOf the rueful neighbors, and--forth to thee!
Words in this poem
- midsummer n.
- The middle of summer. Shak. Midsummer daisy (Bot.), the oxeye daisy. [AS. midsumor.]
- lush a.
- Full of juice or succulence. [Prob. an abbrev. of lushious, fr. luscious.]
- lithe v. i.
- To listen or listen to; to hearken to. P. Plowman. [Icel Listen.]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- tangle v. t.
- To unite or knit together confusedly; to interweave or interlock, as threads, so as to make it difficult to unravel the knot; to entangle; to ravel. [A frequentative fr. tang seaweed; hence, to twist like seaweed. See Tang seaweed, and cf. Tangle, n.]
- pulsate v. i.
- To throb, as a pulse; to beat, as the heart. [L. pulsatus, p. p. of pulsare to beat, strike, v. intens. fr. pellere to beat, strike, drive. See Pulse a beating, and cf. Pulse, v.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- cloistered a.
- Dwelling in cloisters; solitary.
- rueful a.
- Causing one to rue or lament; woeful; mournful; sorrowful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prologue to Pacchiarotto is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning, Project Gutenberg ebook #28041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Browning, Prologue to Pacchiarotto, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/prologue-to-pacchiarotto.html, id L25118.
Form and metre
Prologue to Pacchiarotto is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB passA · dayB · grassA · awayB
- 2 ABAB clotheA · greenB · lothA · betweenB
- 3 ABAB robeA · o'erbrimsB · probeA · limbsB
- 4 ABAB guessA · perhapsB · excessA · wrapsB
- 5 ABAB lifeA · heartB · strifeA · startB
- 6 ABAB thingA · freeB · ringA · theeB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, the old wall here! How I could pass | 9 | ········· |
| Life in a long midsummer day, | 8 | ····//˘· |
| My feet confined to a plot of grass, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| My eyes from a wall not once away! | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| And lush and lithe do the creepers clothe | 9 | ········· |
| Yon wall I watch, with a wealth of green: | 9 | ········· |
| Its bald red bricks draped, nothing loth, | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| In lappets of tangle they laugh between. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Now, what is it makes pulsate the robe? | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Why tremble the sprays? What life o'erbrims | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| The body--the house, no eye can probe-- | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Divined as, beneath a robe, the limbs? | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| And there again! But my heart may guess | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| Who tripped behind; and she sang perhaps; | 10 | ··˘·····˘/ |
| So, the old wall throbbed, and its life's excess | 10 | ········/· |
| Died out and away in the leafy wraps! | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| Wall upon wall are between us; life | 9 | ········· |
| And song should away from heart to heart! | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| I--prison-bird, with a ruddy strife | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| At breast, and a lip whence storm-notes start-- | 9 | ········· |
| Hold on, hope hard in the subtle thing | 9 | ······/˘· |
| That's spirit: though cloistered fast, soar free; | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘··· |
| Account as wood, brick, stone, this ring | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Of the rueful neighbors, and--forth to thee! | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
On this poem
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.