An Exhortation to Mankind
Ye dwellers on this world, to the first MindExalt your eyes; and ye shall see how lowVile Tyranny, wearing the glorious showOf nobleness and worth, keeps you confined.Then look at proud Hypocrisy, entwinedWith lies and snares, who once taught men to knowThe fear of God. Next to the Sophists go,Traitors to thought and reason, jugglers blind.Keen Socrates to quell the Sophists came:To quell the Tyrants, Cato just and rough:To quell the Hypocrites, Christ, heaven's own flame.But to unmask fraud, sacrilege, and lies,Or boldly rush on death, is not enough;Unless we all taste God, made inly wise.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- nobleness n.
- The quality or state of being noble; greatness; dignity; magnanimity; elevation of mind, character, or station; nobility; grandeur; stateliness.
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
- unmask v. t.
- To strip of a mask or disguise; to lay open; to expose. [1st pref. un- + mask.]
- boldly adv.
- In a bold manner. [AS. bealdlice.]
- inly a.
- Internal; interior; secret. [OE. inlich, AS. inlic. See In.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Exhortation to Mankind 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, An Exhortation to Mankind, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/an-exhortation-to-mankind.html, id L27807.
Form and metre
An Exhortation to Mankind is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCEDE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABBAABBACDCEDE mindA · lowB · showB · confinedA · entwinedA · knowB · goB · blindA · cameC · roughD · flameC · liesE · enoughD · wiseE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ye dwellers on this world, to the first Mind | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Exalt your eyes; and ye shall see how low | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Vile Tyranny, wearing the glorious show | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘· |
| Of nobleness and worth, keeps you confined. | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| Then look at proud Hypocrisy, entwined | 10 | ····˘/˘˘˘/ |
| With lies and snares, who once taught men to know | 10 | ·········· |
| The fear of God. Next to the Sophists go, | 10 | ·········· |
| Traitors to thought and reason, jugglers blind. | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Keen Socrates to quell the Sophists came: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To quell the Tyrants, Cato just and rough: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To quell the Hypocrites, Christ, heaven's own flame. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| But to unmask fraud, sacrilege, and lies, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘˘·· |
| Or boldly rush on death, is not enough; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Unless we all taste God, made inly wise. | 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.