The People
The people is a beast of muddy brain,That knows not its own force, and therefore standsLoaded with wood and stone; the powerless handsOf a mere child guide it with bit and rein:One kick would be enough to break the chain;But the beast fears, and what the child demands,It does; nor its own terror understands,Confused and stupefied by bugbears vain.Most wonderful! with its own hand it tiesAnd gags itself--gives itself death and warFor pence doled out by kings from its own store.Its own are all things between earth and heaven;But this it knows not; and if one ariseTo tell this truth, it kills him unforgiven.
About this text
The People 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, The People, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/the-people.html, id L27826.
Form and metre
The People is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDDAC- brainA · standsB · handsB · reinA · chainA · demandsB · understandsB · vainA · tiesC · warD · storeD · heavenA · ariseC · unforgiven
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 people is a beast of muddy brain, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| That knows not its own force, and therefore stands | 10 | ·········· |
| Loaded with wood and stone; the powerless hands | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Of a mere child guide it with bit and rein: | 10 | ·········· |
| One kick would be enough to break the chain; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| But the beast fears, and what the child demands, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| It does; nor its own terror understands, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Confused and stupefied by bugbears vain. | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘···· |
| Most wonderful! with its own hand it ties | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| And gags itself--gives itself death and war | 10 | ··˘/·˘/··· |
| For pence doled out by kings from its own store. | 10 | ·········· |
| Its own are all things between earth and heaven; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| But this it knows not; and if one arise | 10 | ········˘/ |
| To tell this truth, it kills him unforgiven. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
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.