The Soul
A handful of brain holds me: I consumeSo much that all the books the world contains,Cannot allay my furious famine-pains:--What feasts were mine! Yet hunger is my doom.With one world Aristarchus fed my greed;This finished, others Metrodorus gave;Yet, stirred by restless yearning, still I crave:The more I know, the more to learn I need.Thus I'm an image of that Sire in whomAll beings are, like fishes in the sea;That one true object of the loving mind.Reasoning may reach Him, like a shaft shot home;The Church may guide; but only blest is heWho loses self in God, God's self to find.
Words in this poem
- handful n.
- As much as the hand will grasp or contain. [AS. handfull.]
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Soul 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, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/the-soul.html, id L27805.
Form and metre
The Soul 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 ABBACDDCAEF-EF consumeA · containsB · painsB · doomA · greedC · gaveD · craveD · needC · whomA · seaE · mindF · home · heE · findF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A handful of brain holds me: I consume | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| So much that all the books the world contains, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Cannot allay my furious famine-pains:-- | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘/˘· |
| What feasts were mine! Yet hunger is my doom. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With one world Aristarchus fed my greed; | 10 | ·········· |
| This finished, others Metrodorus gave; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Yet, stirred by restless yearning, still I crave: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The more I know, the more to learn I need. | 10 | ·········· |
| Thus I'm an image of that Sire in whom | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| All beings are, like fishes in the sea; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That one true object of the loving mind. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Reasoning may reach Him, like a shaft shot home; | 10 | /˘········ |
| The Church may guide; but only blest is he | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who loses self in God, God's self to find. | 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.