A Prophecy of Judgment, No. 1: The Reign of Antichrist
While yet the eagle preys, and growls the bear;While roars the lion; while the crow defiesThe lamb who raised our race above the skies;While yet the dove laments to the deaf air;While, mixed with goodly wheat, darnel and tareWithin the field of human nature rise;--Let that ungodly sect, profanely wise,That scorns our hope, feed, fatten, and beware!Soon comes the day when those grim giants fell,Famed through the world, dyed deep with sanguine hue,Whom with feigned flatteries you applaud, shall beSwept from the earth, and sunk in horrid Hell,Girt round with flames, to weep and wail with you,In doleful dungeons everlastingly.
Words in this poem
- goodly a.
- Pleasant; agreeable; desirable. [OE. godlich, AS. g. See Good, and Like.]
- ungodly a.
- Not godly; not having regard for God; disobedient to God; wicked; impious; sinful.
- profanely adv.
- In a profane manner.
- beware v. t.
- To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- horrid a.
- Rough; rugged; bristling. [L. horridus. See Horror, and cf. Ordure.]
- girt v. t.
- To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. [From Girt, n., cf. Girth, v.]
- everlastingly adv.
- In an everlasting manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prophecy of Judgment, No. 1: The Reign of Antichrist is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds 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: Tommaso Campanella, A Prophecy of Judgment, No. 1: The Reign of Antichrist, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/a-prophecy-of-judgment-no-1-the-reign-of-antichrist.html, id L27841.
Form and metre
A Prophecy of Judgment, No. 1: The Reign of Antichrist is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABBA-BBACD-CD- bearA · defiesB · skiesB · airA · tare · riseB · wiseB · bewareA · fellC · hueD · be · hellC · youD · everlastingly
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 |
|---|---|---|
| While yet the eagle preys, and growls the bear; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| While roars the lion; while the crow defies | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The lamb who raised our race above the skies; | 10 | ····/····· |
| While yet the dove laments to the deaf air; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| While, mixed with goodly wheat, darnel and tare | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| Within the field of human nature rise;-- | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Let that ungodly sect, profanely wise, | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| That scorns our hope, feed, fatten, and beware! | 10 | ··/··/˘·˘/ |
| Soon comes the day when those grim giants fell, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Famed through the world, dyed deep with sanguine hue, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whom with feigned flatteries you applaud, shall be | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Swept from the earth, and sunk in horrid Hell, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Girt round with flames, to weep and wail with you, | 10 | ·········· |
| In doleful dungeons everlastingly. | 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.