The Price of Freedom
From Rome to Greece, from Greece to Libya's sand,Yearning for liberty, just Cato went;Nor finding freedom to his heart's content,Sought it in death, and died by his own hand.Wise Hannibal, when neither sea nor landCould save him from the Roman eagles, rentHis soul with poison from imprisonment;And a snake's tooth cut Cleopatra's band.In this way died one valiant Maccabee;Brutus feigned madness; prudent Solon hidHis sense; and David, when he feared Gath's king.Thus when the Mystic found that Jonah's seaWas yawning to engulf him, what he didHe gave to God--a wise man's offering.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
- solon n.
- A celebrated Athenian lawmaker, born about 638 b. c.; hence, a legislator; a publicist; -- often used ironically.
- engulf v. t.
- To absorb or swallow up as in a gulf. [Pref. en- + gulf: cf. OF. engolfer. Cf. Ingulf.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Price of Freedom 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 Price of Freedom, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/the-price-of-freedom.html, id L27851.
Form and metre
The Price of Freedom 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 84%).
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 sandA · wentB · contentB · handA · landA · rentB · imprisonmentB · bandA · maccabeeC · hidD · kingE · seaC · didD · offeringE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From Rome to Greece, from Greece to Libya's sand, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yearning for liberty, just Cato went; | 10 | /˘·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Nor finding freedom to his heart's content, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Sought it in death, and died by his own hand. | 10 | ·········· |
| Wise Hannibal, when neither sea nor land | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Could save him from the Roman eagles, rent | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| His soul with poison from imprisonment; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| And a snake's tooth cut Cleopatra's band. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| In this way died one valiant Maccabee; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Brutus feigned madness; prudent Solon hid | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘· |
| His sense; and David, when he feared Gath's king. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thus when the Mystic found that Jonah's sea | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Was yawning to engulf him, what he did | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| He gave to God--a wise man's offering. | 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.