God Made and God Rules
The fabric of the world--earth, air, and skies--Each particle thereof and tiniest partDesigned for special ends--proclaims the artOf an almighty Maker good and wise.Nathless the lawless brutes, our crimes and lies,The joys of vicious men, the good man's smart,All creatures swerving from their ends, impartDoubts that the Ruler is nor good nor wise.Can it then be that boundless Power, Love, Mind,Lets others reign, the while He takes repose?Hath He grown old, or hath He ceased to heed?Nay, one God made and rules: He shall unwindThe tangled skein; the hidden law disclose,Whereby so many sinned in thought and deed.
Words in this poem
- nathless adv.
- Nevertheless. Chaucer. Milton. E. Arnold. [OE. natheles, na the les, not the less, AS. na never. See Na, The, conj., and cf. Nevertheless.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
God Made and God Rules 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, God Made and God Rules, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/god-made-and-god-rules.html, id L27861.
Form and metre
God Made and God Rules is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE skiesA · partB · artB · wiseA · liesA · smartB · impartB · wiseA · mindC · reposeD · heedE · unwindC · discloseD · deedE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The fabric of the world--earth, air, and skies-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Each particle thereof and tiniest part | 10 | ·/˘···/˘˘· |
| Designed for special ends--proclaims the art | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/·· |
| Of an almighty Maker good and wise. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Nathless the lawless brutes, our crimes and lies, | 10 | /˘·/˘·/··· |
| The joys of vicious men, the good man's smart, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| All creatures swerving from their ends, impart | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Doubts that the Ruler is nor good nor wise. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Can it then be that boundless Power, Love, Mind, | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| Lets others reign, the while He takes repose? | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Hath He grown old, or hath He ceased to heed? | 10 | ·········· |
| Nay, one God made and rules: He shall unwind | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The tangled skein; the hidden law disclose, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Whereby so many sinned in thought and deed. | 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.