On Italy
That Lady who to Caesar came in stateUpon the Rubicon, what time she fearedRuin from those strange races who appearedErewhile to build her empire strong and great,Now stays with limbs dispersed and lacerate,A bondslave, shorn of all her pomp revered:Nor seems it now that Dinah's shame can girdSimeon or Levi to avenge her fate.If then Jerusalem doth not repairTo Nazareth or Athens, where did reignWisdom of God or man in days of yore,None shall arise her honours to restore:For Herods are all strangers; when they swearTo save the Saviour's seed, their oath is vain.
Words in this poem
- rubicon n.
- A small river which separated Italy from Cisalpine Gaul, the province alloted to Julius Cæsar.
- erewhile adv.
- Some time ago; a little while before; heretofore.
- bondslave n.
- A person in a state of slavery; one whose person and liberty are subjected to the authority of a master.
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- 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
On Italy 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, On Italy, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/on-italy.html, id L27829.
Form and metre
On Italy 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 ABBAAB-ACDEECD stateA · fearedB · appearedB · greatA · lacerateA · reveredB · gird · fateA · repairC · reignD · yoreE · restoreE · swearC · vainD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That Lady who to Caesar came in state | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Upon the Rubicon, what time she feared | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Ruin from those strange races who appeared | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Erewhile to build her empire strong and great, | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Now stays with limbs dispersed and lacerate, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| A bondslave, shorn of all her pomp revered: | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Nor seems it now that Dinah's shame can gird | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Simeon or Levi to avenge her fate. | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/·· |
| If then Jerusalem doth not repair | 10 | ··˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| To Nazareth or Athens, where did reign | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Wisdom of God or man in days of yore, | 10 | /˘········ |
| None shall arise her honours to restore: | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| For Herods are all strangers; when they swear | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| To save the Saviour's seed, their oath is vain. | 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.