The Soul's Apology
Six thousand years or more on earth I've been:Witness those histories of nations dead,Which for our age I have illustratedIn philosophic volumes, scene by scene.And thou, mere mite, seeing my sun sereneEclipsed, wilt argue that I had no headTo live by.--Why not try the sun instead,If nought in fate unfathomed thou hast seen?If wise men, whom the world rebukes, combinedWith tyrant wolves, brute beasts we should become.The sage, once stoned for sin, you canonise.When rennet melts, much milk makes haste to bind.The more you blow the flames, the more they rise,Bloom into stars, and find in heaven their home.
Words in this poem
- philosophic a.
- Of or pertaining to philosophy; versed in, or imbued with, the principles of philosophy; hence, characterizing a philosopher; rational; wise; temperate; calm; cool. [L. philosophicus: cf. F. philosophique.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- canonise v. t.
- To declare (a deceased person) a saint; to put in the catalogue of saints; as, Thomas a Becket was canonized. [F. canoniser or LL. canonizare, fr. L. canon.. See Canon.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Soul's Apology 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 Soul's Apology, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/the-soul-s-apology.html, id L27853.
Form and metre
The Soul's Apology is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 -AABBAABCDECED been · deadA · illustratedA · sceneB · sereneB · headA · insteadA · seenB · combinedC · becomeD · canoniseE · bindC · riseE · homeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Six thousand years or more on earth I've been: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Witness those histories of nations dead, | 10 | /˘·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Which for our age I have illustrated | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·˘ |
| In philosophic volumes, scene by scene. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| And thou, mere mite, seeing my sun serene | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| Eclipsed, wilt argue that I had no head | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| To live by.--Why not try the sun instead, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| If nought in fate unfathomed thou hast seen? | 10 | ·········· |
| If wise men, whom the world rebukes, combined | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| With tyrant wolves, brute beasts we should become. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| The sage, once stoned for sin, you canonise. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When rennet melts, much milk makes haste to bind. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The more you blow the flames, the more they rise, | 10 | ·········· |
| Bloom into stars, and find in heaven their home. | 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.