Act the Third: Scene XII
CLARIN. Live, long live the two, I say!Me it matters not a pin,Which doth lose or which doth win,If I can keep out of the way!--So aside here I will go,Acting like a prudent hero,Even as the Emperor NeroTook things coolly long ago.Or if care I cannot shun,Let it 'bout mine ownself be;Yes, here hidden I can seeAll the fighting and the fun;What a cosy place I spyMid the rock there! so secure,Death can't find me out I'm sure,Then a fig for death I say!
Words in this poem
- nero n.
- A Roman emperor notorius for debauchery and barbarous cruelty; hence, any profligate and cruel ruler or merciless tyrant.
- coolly adv.
- In a cool manner; without heat or excessive cold; without passion or ardor; calmly; deliberately; with indifference; impudently.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Third: Scene XII 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 XII, 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-xii.html, id L26595.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene XII is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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.
- 1 ABBACDDCEFFEFGGA sayA · pinB · winB · wayA · goC · heroD · neroD · agoC · shunE · beF · seeF · funE · spyF · secureG · sureG · sayA
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. Live, long live the two, I say! | 9 | ········· |
| Me it matters not a pin, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Which doth lose or which doth win, | 7 | ······· |
| If I can keep out of the way!-- | 8 | ········ |
| So aside here I will go, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Acting like a prudent hero, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Even as the Emperor Nero | 9 | /˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| Took things coolly long ago. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Or if care I cannot shun, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Let it 'bout mine ownself be; | 7 | ······· |
| Yes, here hidden I can see | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| All the fighting and the fun; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What a cosy place I spy | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Mid the rock there! so secure, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Death can't find me out I'm sure, | 7 | ······· |
| Then a fig for death I say! | 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.