Act the Second: Scene IV
CLARIN. Well, I'll not be by to see,That's a comfort.
MOSCON. How? why so?Need I be chagrined to know,If the girl's not mine, that sheThus to you her debt did pay.
CLARIN. No.
MOSCON. This makes my point more strong,Since to me it were no wrongIf it chanced not on my day.But our master yonder, see,How absorbed he seems.
CLARIN. More near,If he speaks I'd like to hear.
MOSCON. And I, too, would like.
CYPRIAN. Ah me!gesticulates with his arms, and accidentally strikes both.Love, how great thy agonies!--
CLARIN. Ah! ah, me!
MOSCON. Ah, me! I bawl.
CLARIN. Well, I think that we may callThis the land of the 'sigh-ah-mes'!
CYPRIAN. What! and have you both been here?
CLARIN. I, at least, was here, I'll swear.
MOSCON. And I, also.
CYPRIAN. O, despairEnd at once my sad career!Ah, what human heart to woeLike to mine has given a home?
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
- bawl v. i.
- To cry out with a loud, full sound; to cry with vehemence, as in calling or exultation; to shout; to vociferate. [Icel. baula to low, bellow, as a cow; akin to Sw. böla; cf. AS bellan, G. bellen to bark, E. bellow, bull.]
- career n.
- A race course: the ground run over. [F. carrière race course, high road, street, fr. L. carrus wagon. See Car.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Second: Scene IV 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 Second: Scene IV, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-second-scene-iv.html, id L26617.
Form and metre
Act the Second: Scene IV is 29 lines in 14 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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.
- 1 A- seeA · comfort
- 2 BBAC soB · knowB · sheA · payC
- 3 B noB
- 4 DDCA- strongD · wrongD · dayC · seeA · seems
- 5 EE nearE · hearE
- 7 A-- meA · both · agonies
- 9 F bawlF
- 10 F- callF · mes
- 11 G hereG
- 12 H swearH
- 14 HG-- despairH · careerG · woe · home
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. Well, I'll not be by to see, | 9 | ········· |
| That's a comfort. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| MOSCON. How? why so? | 5 | ····· |
| Need I be chagrined to know, | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| If the girl's not mine, that she | 7 | ······· |
| Thus to you her debt did pay. | 7 | ······· |
| CLARIN. No. | 3 | ··· |
| MOSCON. This makes my point more strong, | 8 | ········ |
| Since to me it were no wrong | 7 | ······· |
| If it chanced not on my day. | 8 | ···˘···· |
| But our master yonder, see, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| How absorbed he seems. | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| CLARIN. More near, | 4 | ···· |
| If he speaks I'd like to hear. | 7 | ······· |
| MOSCON. And I, too, would like. | 7 | ······· |
| CYPRIAN. Ah me! | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| gesticulates with his arms, and accidentally strikes both. | 14 | ·········˘/˘·· |
| Love, how great thy agonies!-- | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| CLARIN. Ah! ah, me! | 5 | ····· |
| MOSCON. Ah, me! I bawl. | 6 | ······ |
| CLARIN. Well, I think that we may call | 9 | ········· |
| This the land of the 'sigh-ah-mes'! | 8 | ········ |
| CYPRIAN. What! and have you both been here? | 9 | /˘······· |
| CLARIN. I, at least, was here, I'll swear. | 9 | ········· |
| MOSCON. And I, also. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| CYPRIAN. O, despair | 6 | /˘˘·˘/ |
| End at once my sad career! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Ah, what human heart to woe | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Like to mine has given a home? | 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.