Against Hypocrites
Deep in their hearts they hide the lusts of Hell:Christ's name is written on their brow, that thoseWho only view the husk, may not supposeWhat guile and malice harbour in the shell.O God! O Wisdom! Holy Fervour! WellOf strength invincible to strike Thy foes!Give me the force--my spirit burns and glows--To strip those idols and to break their spell!The zeal I bear unto Thy name benign,The love I feel for truth sincere and pure,When such men triumph, make me rend my hair.How long shall folk this infamy endure--That he should be held sacred, he divine,Who strips e'en corpses in the graveyard bare?
Words in this poem
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
- fervour n.
- Heat; excessive warmth. [OF. fervor, fervour, F. ferveur, L. fervor, fr. fervere. See Fervent.]
- 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,]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- graveyard n.
- A yard or inclosure for the interment of the dead; a cemetery.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Against Hypocrites 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, Against Hypocrites, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/against-hypocrites.html, id L27837.
Form and metre
Against Hypocrites is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDEDCE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABBAABBACDEDCE hellA · thoseB · supposeB · shellA · wellA · foesB · glowsB · spellA · benignC · pureD · hairE · endureD · divineC · bareE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Deep in their hearts they hide the lusts of Hell: | 10 | ·········· |
| Christ's name is written on their brow, that those | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Who only view the husk, may not suppose | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| What guile and malice harbour in the shell. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| O God! O Wisdom! Holy Fervour! Well | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Of strength invincible to strike Thy foes! | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Give me the force--my spirit burns and glows-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To strip those idols and to break their spell! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The zeal I bear unto Thy name benign, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The love I feel for truth sincere and pure, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| When such men triumph, make me rend my hair. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| How long shall folk this infamy endure-- | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| That he should be held sacred, he divine, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Who strips e'en corpses in the graveyard bare? | 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.