On the Lord's Prayer, No. 2
Where are the freedom and high feats that springFrom fatherhood so fair as Deity?Fleas are no sons of men, although they beFlesh-born: brave thoughts and deeds this honour bring.If princes great or small seek anythingAdverse to good and God's authority,Which of you dares refuse? Nay, who is heThat doth not cringe to do their pleasuring?So then with soul and blood in verityYou serve base gold, vices, and worthless men--God with lip-service only and with lies,Sunk in the slough of dire idolatry:If Ignorance begat these errors, thenTo Reason turn for sonship and be wise!
Words in this poem
- fatherhood n.
- The state of being a father; the character or authority of a father; paternity.
- 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.]
- verity n.
- The quality or state of being true, or real; consonance of a statement, proposition, or other thing, with fact; truth; reality. [F. vérité, L. veritas, fr. verus true. See Very.]
- dire a.
- Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens. [L. dirus; of uncertain origin.]
- sonship n.
- The state of being a son, or of bearing the relation of a son; filiation. Dr. H. More.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Lord's Prayer, No. 2 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 the Lord's Prayer, No. 2, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/on-the-lord-s-prayer-no-2.html, id L27839.
Form and metre
On the Lord's Prayer, No. 2 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 A-BAA-BA-CD-CD springA · deity · beB · bringA · anythingA · authority · heB · pleasuringA · verity · menC · liesD · idolatry · thenC · wiseD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where are the freedom and high feats that spring | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| From fatherhood so fair as Deity? | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Fleas are no sons of men, although they be | 10 | ·········· |
| Flesh-born: brave thoughts and deeds this honour bring. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| If princes great or small seek anything | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Adverse to good and God's authority, | 10 | ˘/····˘/˘˘ |
| Which of you dares refuse? Nay, who is he | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| That doth not cringe to do their pleasuring? | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| So then with soul and blood in verity | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| You serve base gold, vices, and worthless men-- | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| God with lip-service only and with lies, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Sunk in the slough of dire idolatry: | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| If Ignorance begat these errors, then | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/·/˘· |
| To Reason turn for sonship and be 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.