Act the Third: Scene XII
CLARIN. Stop: RenuncioBride like this who smells of smokeStronger than a blacksmith's furnace.But perhaps the incantation,Being so extremely sudden,Caught her leaning o'er the lye-tub,If not cooking tripe for supper.No. Thus cloaked and in a kitchen!That excuse won't do: anotherLet me try. (I have it now,For an honourable womanNever smells then any sweeter,)She with fright must have been flustered.--He has overtaken her now,And from that rude vale uncultured,Struggling in closed clasping arms,(For I think when lovers struggle,Open arms are not the weaponEven for the lustiest lover,)To this very spot they come:I will watch them under cover,For I wish for once to witnessHow young women are abducted.
Words in this poem
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
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 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 XII, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-third-scene-xii.html, id L26643.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene XII is 23 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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---A----B-B-- renuncio · smoke · furnace · incantation · sudden · tub · supper · kitchen · another · nowA · woman · sweeter · flustered · nowA · uncultured · arms · struggle · weapon · loverB · come · coverB · witness · abducted
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. Stop: Renuncio | 6 | ······ |
| Bride like this who smells of smoke | 7 | ······· |
| Stronger than a blacksmith's furnace. | 8 | /˘··/·/˘ |
| But perhaps the incantation, | 8 | ·˘/·˘//˘ |
| Being so extremely sudden, | 8 | /˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Caught her leaning o'er the lye-tub, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| If not cooking tripe for supper. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| No. Thus cloaked and in a kitchen! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| That excuse won't do: another | 8 | ·˘/··˘/˘ |
| Let me try. (I have it now, | 7 | ······· |
| For an honourable woman | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Never smells then any sweeter,) | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| She with fright must have been flustered.-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| He has overtaken her now, | 8 | ··/˘·˘·· |
| And from that rude vale uncultured, | 8 | ········ |
| Struggling in closed clasping arms, | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| (For I think when lovers struggle, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Open arms are not the weapon | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Even for the lustiest lover,) | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| To this very spot they come: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I will watch them under cover, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| For I wish for once to witness | 8 | ······/˘ |
| How young women are abducted. | 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.