Act the Third: Scene IV
LUIS. Sir, already we have issuedFrom that street; if aught there stopped us,We are here alone, and mayHand to hand resume the combat.And since powerless is my swordThee to wound, I throw me on theeTo know who thou art. Declare,Art thou demon, man, or monster?What! no answer? Then I thusDare myself to solve the problem,And find out . . . . Oh, save me, heaven!God! what's this I see? what horridSpectacle! What frightful vision!What death-threatening fearful portent!Stiff and stony corse, who art thou?That of dust and ashes formedNow dost live?
THE FIGURE. Not know thyself?This is thy most faithful portrait;I, alas! am Luis Enius.
LUIS. Save me, heaven! what words of horror!Save me, heaven! what sight of woe!Prey of shadows and misfortunes.Ah, I die.
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- resume n.
- A summing up; a condensed statement; an abridgment or brief recapitulation. [F. See Resume.]
- horrid a.
- Rough; rugged; bristling. [L. horridus. See Horror, and cf. Ordure.]
- frightful a.
- Full of fright; affrighted; frightened.
- portent n.
- That which portends, or foretoken; esp., that which portends evil; a sign of coming calamity; an omen; a sign. [L. portentum. See Portend.]
- corse n.
- A living body or its bulk. [OF. cors, F. corps. See Corpse.]
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 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 Third: 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-third-scene-iv.html, id L26691.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene IV is 24 lines in 3 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------A-------- issued · usA · may · combat · sword · thee · declare · monster · thusA · problem · heaven · horrid · vision · portent · thou · formed · live
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 |
|---|---|---|
| LUIS. Sir, already we have issued | 10 | ˘/·˘/˘··/˘ |
| From that street; if aught there stopped us, | 8 | ········ |
| We are here alone, and may | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Hand to hand resume the combat. | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| And since powerless is my sword | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Thee to wound, I throw me on thee | 8 | ········ |
| To know who thou art. Declare, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Art thou demon, man, or monster? | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| What! no answer? Then I thus | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Dare myself to solve the problem, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| And find out . . . . Oh, save me, heaven! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| God! what's this I see? what horrid | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Spectacle! What frightful vision! | 8 | /˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| What death-threatening fearful portent! | 9 | ··/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| Stiff and stony corse, who art thou? | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| That of dust and ashes formed | 8 | ····/˘·˘ |
| Now dost live? | 3 | ··· |
| THE FIGURE. Not know thyself? | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| This is thy most faithful portrait; | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| I, alas! am Luis Enius. | 8 | ·˘/·˘/·· |
| LUIS. Save me, heaven! what words of horror! | 10 | ˘/··/···/˘ |
| Save me, heaven! what sight of woe! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Prey of shadows and misfortunes. | 8 | ··/··˘/˘ |
| Ah, I die. | 3 | ··· |
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.