The Samaritan
From Rome to Ostia a poor man went;Thieves robbed and wounded him upon the way;Some monks, great saints, observed him where he lay,And left him, on their breviaries intent.A Bishop passed thereby, and careless bentTo sign the cross, a blessing brief to say;But a great Cardinal, to clutch their prey,Followed the thieves, falsely benevolent.At last there came a German Lutheran,Who builds on faith, merit of works withstands;He raised and clothed and healed the dying man.Now which of these was worthiest, most humane?The heart is better than the head, kind handsThan cold lip-service; faith without works is vain.Who understandsWhat creed is good and true for self and others?--But none can doubt the good he doth his brothers.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- humane a.
- Pertaining to man; human. Jer. Taylor. [L. humanus: cf. F. humain. See Human.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Samaritan 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 Samaritan, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/the-samaritan.html, id L27834.
Form and metre
The Samaritan is 17 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCEDEDFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABBAABBACDCEDEDFF wentA · wayB · layB · intentA · bentA · sayB · preyB · benevolentA · lutheranC · withstandsD · manC · humaneE · handsD · vainE · understandsD · othersF · brothersF
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 Ostia a poor man went; | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Thieves robbed and wounded him upon the way; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Some monks, great saints, observed him where he lay, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And left him, on their breviaries intent. | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| A Bishop passed thereby, and careless bent | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| To sign the cross, a blessing brief to say; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But a great Cardinal, to clutch their prey, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Followed the thieves, falsely benevolent. | 10 | /˘··/˘˘/˘˘ |
| At last there came a German Lutheran, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Who builds on faith, merit of works withstands; | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| He raised and clothed and healed the dying man. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Now which of these was worthiest, most humane? | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The heart is better than the head, kind hands | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Than cold lip-service; faith without works is vain. | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Who understands | 4 | ··˘/ |
| What creed is good and true for self and others?-- | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| But none can doubt the good he doth his brothers. | 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.