Act the First: Scene II
CYPRIAN. Now I am alone, and may,If my mind can be so lifted,Study the great problem whichKeeps my soul disturbed, bewilder'd,Since I read in Pliny's pageThe mysterious words there written.Which define a god; becauseIt doth seem beyond the limitsOf my intellect to findOne who all these signs exhibits.This mysterious hidden truthMust I seek for.
Words in this poem
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the First: Scene II is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wonder-Working Magician, Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, 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 First: Scene II, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-first-scene-ii.html, id L26599.
Form and metre
Act the First: Scene II is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| CYPRIAN. Now I am alone, and may, | 9 | /˘···˘/·· |
| If my mind can be so lifted, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Study the great problem which | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Keeps my soul disturbed, bewilder'd, | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| Since I read in Pliny's page | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The mysterious words there written. | 9 | ·˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| Which define a god; because | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| It doth seem beyond the limits | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Of my intellect to find | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| One who all these signs exhibits. | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| This mysterious hidden truth | 8 | ·˘/˘˘/˘· |
| Must I seek for. | 4 | ···· |
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.