Act the Third: Scene IV
DEMON. Abyss of hell prepare!Thyself the region of thine own despair.--From out each dungeon's dark recessLet loose the spirits of voluptuousness,To rain and o'erthrowJustina's virgin fabric pure as snow.A thousand filthy phantoms with thee broughtSo people her chaste thoughtThat all her maiden fancies may be filledWith their deceits; let sweetest notes be trilledFrom every tuneful grove,And all, birds, plants, and flowers, provoke to love.Let nothing meet her eyesBut spoils of love's delicious victories,Let nothing meet her earsBut languid sighs that listening passion hears:That thus unguarded by the faith, and weak,She here may Cyprian seekInvoked by his strong spell,And by my blinding spirit lured as well.Begin, in silence I will here remainUnseen, that you may now begin the strain.
Words in this poem
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Third: 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 Third: Scene IV, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-third-scene-iv.html, id L26635.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene IV is 22 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 91% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEE--FFGGHHIIJJ prepareA · despairA · recessB · voluptuousnessB · o'erthrowC · snowC · broughtD · thoughtD · filledE · trilledE · grove · love · eyesF · victoriesF · earsG · hearsG · weakH · seekH · spellI · wellI · remainJ · strainJ
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| DEMON. Abyss of hell prepare! | 8 | /˘˘/··˘/ |
| Thyself the region of thine own despair.-- | 10 | ˘/·/˘···˘/ |
| From out each dungeon's dark recess | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Let loose the spirits of voluptuousness, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To rain and o'erthrow | 5 | ····· |
| Justina's virgin fabric pure as snow. | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/˘··· |
| A thousand filthy phantoms with thee brought | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| So people her chaste thought | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| That all her maiden fancies may be filled | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| With their deceits; let sweetest notes be trilled | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| From every tuneful grove, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| And all, birds, plants, and flowers, provoke to love. | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| Let nothing meet her eyes | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But spoils of love's delicious victories, | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| Let nothing meet her ears | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But languid sighs that listening passion hears: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| That thus unguarded by the faith, and weak, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| She here may Cyprian seek | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Invoked by his strong spell, | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| And by my blinding spirit lured as well. | 9 | ···/˘/··· |
| Begin, in silence I will here remain | 10 | ˘/·/˘···˘/ |
| Unseen, that you may now begin the strain. | 10 | ˘/····˘/·· |
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.