Act the Second: Scene XV
PATRICK. Here, mighty Lord, dart down thy searching glance,Arm'd with the dreadful lightnings of Thine ire,Wing'd with Thy vengeance, as the bolt with fire,And rout the squadrons of fell ignorance:Come not in pity to the hostile band,Treat not as friends Thy enemies abhorr'd,But since they ask for portents, mighty Lord,Come with the blood-red lightnings in Thy hand.Of old Elias asked with burning sighsFor chastisement, and Moses did displayWonders and portents; in the self-same wayListen, O Lord, to my beseeching cries,And though I be not great or good as they,Still let my accents pierce the listening skies!Portents and chastisement, both day and nightI ask, O Lord, may from Thy hand be given,That Purgatory, Hell and Heaven,May be revealed unto these mortals' sight.
Words in this poem
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- purgatory a.
- Tending to cleanse; cleansing; expiatory. Burke. [L. purgatorius.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Second: Scene XV 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 Second: Scene XV, in The Purgatory of St. Patrick (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6371, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-purgatorio-san-patricio/act-the-second-scene-xv.html, id L26683.
Form and metre
Act the Second: Scene XV is 18 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See 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 ABBACDDCEFFEFEG--G glanceA · ireB · fireB · ignoranceA · bandC · abhorr'dD · lordD · handC · sighsE · displayF · wayF · criesE · theyF · skiesE · nightG · given · heaven · sightG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| PATRICK. Here, mighty Lord, dart down thy searching glance, | 12 | /˘·/˘····/˘· |
| Arm'd with the dreadful lightnings of Thine ire, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Wing'd with Thy vengeance, as the bolt with fire, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And rout the squadrons of fell ignorance: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Come not in pity to the hostile band, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Treat not as friends Thy enemies abhorr'd, | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| But since they ask for portents, mighty Lord, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Come with the blood-red lightnings in Thy hand. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of old Elias asked with burning sighs | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| For chastisement, and Moses did display | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Wonders and portents; in the self-same way | 10 | /˘·/······ |
| Listen, O Lord, to my beseeching cries, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| And though I be not great or good as they, | 10 | ·········· |
| Still let my accents pierce the listening skies! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Portents and chastisement, both day and night | 10 | /··/˘˘···· |
| I ask, O Lord, may from Thy hand be given, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| That Purgatory, Hell and Heaven, | 9 | ·/˘·˘··/˘ |
| May be revealed unto these mortals' sight. | 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.