Act the Third: Scene XI
CLARIN. Madam, is it visiting hour?
ROSAURA. Welcome, Clarin, where have you been?
CLARIN. Only four stout walls betweenIn an old enchanted tower;Death was on the cards for me,But amid the sudden strifeEre the last trump came, my lifeWon the trick and I got free.I ne'er hoped to sound again.
ROSAURA. Why?
CLARIN. Because alone I knowWho you are: And this being so,Learn, Clotaldo is . . . . . This strainPuts me out.
ROSAURA. What can it be?
CLARIN. From the citadel at hand,Leagured round, an armed bandAs to certain victorySallies forth with flags unfurled.
ROSAURA. 'Gainst Prince Sigismund! and I,Coward that I am, not byTo surprise and awe the world,When with so much crueltyEach on each the two hosts spring!
Words in this poem
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Third: Scene XI 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 XI, 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-xi.html, id L26594.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene XI is 24 lines in 8 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in trochaic 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.
- 3 --ABBA- between · tower · meA · strifeB · lifeB · freeA · again
- 5 AA-- knowA · soA · strain · out
- 7 AA-- handA · bandA · victory · unfurled
- 8 AA--- iA · byA · world · cruelty · spring
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| CLARIN. Madam, is it visiting hour? | 9 | ··/˘··/˘/ |
| ROSAURA. Welcome, Clarin, where have you been? | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| CLARIN. Only four stout walls between | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| In an old enchanted tower; | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| Death was on the cards for me, | 7 | ······· |
| But amid the sudden strife | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Ere the last trump came, my life | 7 | ······· |
| Won the trick and I got free. | 7 | ······· |
| I ne'er hoped to sound again. | 8 | ···˘··˘/ |
| ROSAURA. Why? | 4 | ···· |
| CLARIN. Because alone I know | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Who you are: And this being so, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Learn, Clotaldo is . . . . . This strain | 7 | ······· |
| Puts me out. | 3 | ··· |
| ROSAURA. What can it be? | 7 | ······· |
| CLARIN. From the citadel at hand, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Leagured round, an armed band | 8 | /˘˘···˘· |
| As to certain victory | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Sallies forth with flags unfurled. | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| ROSAURA. 'Gainst Prince Sigismund! and I, | 10 | ·········· |
| Coward that I am, not by | 7 | /˘····· |
| To surprise and awe the world, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| When with so much cruelty | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Each on each the two hosts spring! | 7 | ······· |
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.