Act the Third: Scene VI
ESTRELLA. If, mighty lord, thy presence, which it braves,The tumult of the crowd cannot defeat --The frenzy of the multitude that ravesIn hostile bands through every square and street,--Thou'lt see thy kingdom swim in crimson waves,A purple sea of blood shall round it beat;For even already in its dismal doomAll is disaster, tragedy, and gloom.Such is thy kingdom's ruin, so severeThe hard and bloody trial fate hath sent,Dazed is the eye, and terrified the ear;Dark grows the sun, and every wind is spent;Each stone a mournful obelisk doth rear,And every flower erects a monument;A grave seems every house, whence life is gone,--Each soldier is a living skeleton.
Words in this poem
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- disaster n.
- An unpropitious or baleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent. [F. désastre; pref. dés- (L. dis-) + astre star, fr. L. astrum; a word of astrological origin. See Aster, Astral, Star.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Third: Scene VI is in the public domain. This text is taken from Life Is a Dream, Project Gutenberg ebook #6363, the Denis Florence MacCarthy translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Act the Third: Scene VI, in Life Is a Dream (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6363, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-life-is-a-dream/act-the-third-scene-vi.html, id L26589.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene VI is 16 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABABCCDEDEDEFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABABCCDEDEDEFF bravesA · defeatB · ravesA · streetB · wavesA · beatB · doomC · gloomC · severeD · sentE · earD · spentE · rearD · monumentE · goneF · skeletonF
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ESTRELLA. If, mighty lord, thy presence, which it braves, | 13 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘··· |
| The tumult of the crowd cannot defeat -- | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| The frenzy of the multitude that raves | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| In hostile bands through every square and street,-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Thou'lt see thy kingdom swim in crimson waves, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A purple sea of blood shall round it beat; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| For even already in its dismal doom | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| All is disaster, tragedy, and gloom. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| Such is thy kingdom's ruin, so severe | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The hard and bloody trial fate hath sent, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Dazed is the eye, and terrified the ear; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Dark grows the sun, and every wind is spent; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Each stone a mournful obelisk doth rear, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| And every flower erects a monument; | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘/·/˘˘ |
| A grave seems every house, whence life is gone,-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Each soldier is a living skeleton. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
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.