A Prophecy of Judgment, No. 3: The Golden Age
If men were happy in that age of gold,We yet may hope to see mild Saturn's reign;For all things that were buried live again,By time's revolving cycle forward rolled.Yet this the fox, the wolf, the crow, made boldBy fraud and perfidy, deny--in vain:For God that rules, the signs in heaven, the trainOf prophets, and all hearts this faith uphold.If thine and mine were banished in good soothFrom honour, pleasure, and utility,The world would turn, I ween, to Paradise;Blind love to modest love with open eyes;Cunning and ignorance to living truth;And foul oppression to fraternity.
Words in this poem
- perfidy n.
- The act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust reposed; faithlessness; teachery. [L. perfidia, fr. L. perfidus faithless; per (cf. Skr. para away) + fides faith: cf. F. perfidie. See Faith.]
- sooth a.
- True; faithful; trustworthy. [OE. soth, AS. s, for san; akin to OS. s, OHG. sand, Icel. sannr, Sw. sann, Dan. sand, Skr. sat, sant, real, genuine, present, being; properly p. pr. from a root]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prophecy of Judgment, No. 3: The Golden Age 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. 3: The Golden Age, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/a-prophecy-of-judgment-no-3-the-golden-age.html, id L27843.
Form and metre
A Prophecy of Judgment, No. 3: The Golden Age is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBAABBAC---C- goldA · reignB · againB · rolledA · boldA · vainB · trainB · upholdA · soothC · utility · paradise · eyes · truthC · fraternity
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If men were happy in that age of gold, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| We yet may hope to see mild Saturn's reign; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For all things that were buried live again, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| By time's revolving cycle forward rolled. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Yet this the fox, the wolf, the crow, made bold | 10 | ·········· |
| By fraud and perfidy, deny--in vain: | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/·· |
| For God that rules, the signs in heaven, the train | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Of prophets, and all hearts this faith uphold. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| If thine and mine were banished in good sooth | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| From honour, pleasure, and utility, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| The world would turn, I ween, to Paradise; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Blind love to modest love with open eyes; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Cunning and ignorance to living truth; | 10 | /˘·/˘˘·/˘· |
| And foul oppression to fraternity. | 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.