The Present
Black robes befit our age. Once they were white;Next many-hued; now dark as Afric's Moor,Night-black, infernal, traitorous, obscure,Horrid with ignorance and sick with fright.For very shame we shun all colours bright,Who mourn our end--the tyrants we endure,The chains, the noose, the lead, the snares, the lure--Our dismal heroes, our souls sunk in night.Black weeds again denote that extreme follyWhich makes us blind, mournful, and woe-begone:For dusk is dear to doleful melancholy;Nathless fate's wheel still turns: this raiment dunWe shall exchange hereafter for the holyGarments of white in which of yore we shone.
Words in this poem
- horrid a.
- Rough; rugged; bristling. [L. horridus. See Horror, and cf. Ordure.]
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- 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,]
- hereafter adv.
- In time to come; in some future time or state. [AS. hræfter.]
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Present 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 Present, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/the-present.html, id L27845.
Form and metre
The Present 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 ABBAABBAC-C--- whiteA · moorB · obscureB · frightA · brightA · endureB · lureB · nightA · follyC · begone · melancholyC · dun · holy · shone
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Black robes befit our age. Once they were white; | 10 | ··˘//····· |
| Next many-hued; now dark as Afric's Moor, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Night-black, infernal, traitorous, obscure, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Horrid with ignorance and sick with fright. | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| For very shame we shun all colours bright, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Who mourn our end--the tyrants we endure, | 10 | ··/··/˘·˘/ |
| The chains, the noose, the lead, the snares, the lure-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Our dismal heroes, our souls sunk in night. | 10 | //˘/˘/···· |
| Black weeds again denote that extreme folly | 11 | ··˘/˘/·˘//˘ |
| Which makes us blind, mournful, and woe-begone: | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| For dusk is dear to doleful melancholy; | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·˘ |
| Nathless fate's wheel still turns: this raiment dun | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| We shall exchange hereafter for the holy | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Garments of white in which of yore we shone. | 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.