Act the Third: Scene VI
POLONIA. To Thee, O Lord, my spirit climbs,To Thee from every lonely hillI burn to sacrifice my willA thousand and a thousand times.And such my boundless love to TheeI wish each will of mine a living soul could be.
Would that my love I could have shown,By leaving for Thy sake, insteadOf that poor crown that press'd my head,Some proud, imperial crown and throne --Some empire which the sun surveysThrough all its daily course and gilds with constant rays.
This lowly grot, 'neath rocks uphurled,In which I dwell, though poor and small,A spur of that stupendous wall,The eighth great wonder of the world,Doth in its little space excelThe grandest palace where a king doth dwell.
Far better on some natural lawnTo see the morn its gems bestrew,Or watch it weeping pearls of dewWithin the white arms of the dawn;Or view, before the sun, the starsDrive o'er the brightening plain their swiftly-fading cars.
Far better in the mighty main,As night comes on, and clouds grow grey,To see the golden coach of dayDrive down amid the waves of Spain.But be it dark, or be it bright,O Lord! I praise Thy name by day and night.
Than to endure the inner strife,The specious glare, but real weightOf pomp, and power, and pride, and state,And all the vanities of life;How would we shudder could we deemThat life itself, in truth, is but a fleeting dream.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- stupendous a.
- Astonishing; wonderful; amazing; especially, astonishing in magnitude or elevation; as, a stupendous pile. [L. stupendus astonishing, p. future pass. of stupere to be astonished at. Cf. Stupid.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- bestrew v. t.
- To strew or scatter over; to besprinkle. [Spelt also bestrow.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Third: Scene VI 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 VI, 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-vi.html, id L26693.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene VI is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBACC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABBACC climbsA · hillB · willB · timesA · theeC · beC
- 2 ABBACC shownA · insteadB · headB · throneA · surveysC · raysC
- 3 ABBACC uphurledA · smallB · wallB · worldA · excelC · dwellC
- 4 ABBACC lawnA · bestrewB · dewB · dawnA · starsC · carsC
- 5 ABBACC mainA · greyB · dayB · spainA · brightC · nightC
- 6 ABBACC strifeA · weightB · stateB · lifeA · deemC · dreamC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| POLONIA. To Thee, O Lord, my spirit climbs, | 10 | ········/· |
| To Thee from every lonely hill | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| I burn to sacrifice my will | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A thousand and a thousand times. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And such my boundless love to Thee | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I wish each will of mine a living soul could be. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Would that my love I could have shown, | 8 | ········ |
| By leaving for Thy sake, instead | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Of that poor crown that press'd my head, | 8 | ········ |
| Some proud, imperial crown and throne -- | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Some empire which the sun surveys | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Through all its daily course and gilds with constant rays. | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| This lowly grot, 'neath rocks uphurled, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In which I dwell, though poor and small, | 8 | ········ |
| A spur of that stupendous wall, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The eighth great wonder of the world, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Doth in its little space excel | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| The grandest palace where a king doth dwell. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Far better on some natural lawn | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To see the morn its gems bestrew, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Or watch it weeping pearls of dew | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Within the white arms of the dawn; | 8 | ········ |
| Or view, before the sun, the stars | 8 | ········ |
| Drive o'er the brightening plain their swiftly-fading cars. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Far better in the mighty main, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| As night comes on, and clouds grow grey, | 8 | ········ |
| To see the golden coach of day | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Drive down amid the waves of Spain. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| But be it dark, or be it bright, | 8 | ········ |
| O Lord! I praise Thy name by day and night. | 10 | ·········· |
| Than to endure the inner strife, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| The specious glare, but real weight | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Of pomp, and power, and pride, and state, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And all the vanities of life; | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| How would we shudder could we deem | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That life itself, in truth, is but a fleeting dream. | 12 | ··˘/·····/˘· |
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.