Act the First: Scene XV
CYPRIAN. You must not follow him,Since if he who is the loserOf what you have gained, expresslySays he would forget it, youShould not try his patient temper.
FLORUS. Both by you and him at onceHas mine own been too well tested.Speak not now unto JustinaAbout me; for though full vengeanceI propose to take for beingThus supplanted and rejected,Every hope of her being mineNow has ceased, for shameful were it,In the face of such proved facts,To persist in my addresses.
Words in this poem
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
- loser n.
- One who loses. South.
- propose v. i.
- To speak; to converse.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the First: Scene XV 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 XV, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-first-scene-xv.html, id L26612.
Form and metre
Act the First: Scene XV is 15 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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.
- 2 A--A------ onceA · tested · justina · vengeanceA · being · rejected · mine · it · facts · addresses
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. You must not follow him, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Since if he who is the loser | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Of what you have gained, expressly | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Says he would forget it, you | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Should not try his patient temper. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| FLORUS. Both by you and him at once | 9 | ········· |
| Has mine own been too well tested. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Speak not now unto Justina | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| About me; for though full vengeance | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I propose to take for being | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Thus supplanted and rejected, | 8 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Every hope of her being mine | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Now has ceased, for shameful were it, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| In the face of such proved facts, | 8 | ······˘· |
| To persist in my addresses. | 8 | ·˘/··˘/˘ |
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.