Act the First: Scene IV
LUCY. Pardon, if I have not knownHow to serve you as I ought.
PHILIP. For much more than you have thoughtMust you my forgiveness own.For when I your kind face view,Pain and pleasure being at war,I have much to thank you for,And have much to pardon too.Thanks, with which my heart is rife,Are for life restored and breath;Pardon, for you give me death,As before you gave me life.
LUCY. For such flattering declarationsRude and ignorant am I,So my arms will give reply;Which gets rid of explanations.Let their silent interfacingFigure what my words should be.
Words in this poem
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the First: Scene IV is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Purgatory of St. Patrick, Project Gutenberg ebook #6371, 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 IV, in The Purgatory of St. Patrick (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6371, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-purgatorio-san-patricio/act-the-first-scene-iv.html, id L26662.
Form and metre
Act the First: Scene IV is 18 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 AB knownA · oughtB
- 2 BACDDCEFFE thoughtB · ownA · viewC · warD · forD · tooC · rifeE · breathF · deathF · lifeE
- 3 GHHG-- declarationsG · iH · replyH · explanationsG · interfacing · be
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 |
|---|---|---|
| LUCY. Pardon, if I have not known | 9 | /˘/˘····· |
| How to serve you as I ought. | 7 | ······· |
| PHILIP. For much more than you have thought | 9 | /˘······· |
| Must you my forgiveness own. | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| For when I your kind face view, | 7 | ······· |
| Pain and pleasure being at war, | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| I have much to thank you for, | 7 | ······· |
| And have much to pardon too. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Thanks, with which my heart is rife, | 7 | ······· |
| Are for life restored and breath; | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| Pardon, for you give me death, | 7 | /˘····· |
| As before you gave me life. | 7 | ······· |
| LUCY. For such flattering declarations | 10 | /˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Rude and ignorant am I, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| So my arms will give reply; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Which gets rid of explanations. | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Let their silent interfacing | 8 | ··/˘/˘·˘ |
| Figure what my words should be. | 7 | /˘····· |
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.