To God for Help
How wilt Thou I should gain a harbour fair,If after proof among my friends I findThat some are faithless, some devoid of mind,Some short of sense, though stout to do and dare?If some, though wise and loyal, like the hareHide in a hole, or fly in terror blind,While nerve with wisdom and with faith combinedThrough malice and through penury despair?Reason, Thy honour, and my weal eschewedThat false ally who said he came from Thee,With promise vain of power and liberty.I trust:--I'll do. Change Thou the bad to good!--But ere I raise me to that altitude,Needs must I merge in Thee as Thou in me.
Words in this poem
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
- penury n.
- Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme poverty; destitution. [L. penuria; cf. Gr. pénurie.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- merge v. t.
- To cause to be swallowed up; to immerse; to sink; to absorb. [L. mergere, mersum. Cf. Emerge, Immerse, Marrow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To God for Help 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, To God for Help, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/to-god-for-help.html, id L27855.
Form and metre
To God for Help is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABBAABBACD--CD fairA · findB · mindB · dareA · hareA · blindB · combinedB · despairA · eschewedC · theeD · liberty · good · altitudeC · meD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How wilt Thou I should gain a harbour fair, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| If after proof among my friends I find | 10 | ·········· |
| That some are faithless, some devoid of mind, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Some short of sense, though stout to do and dare? | 10 | ·········· |
| If some, though wise and loyal, like the hare | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Hide in a hole, or fly in terror blind, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| While nerve with wisdom and with faith combined | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Through malice and through penury despair? | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| Reason, Thy honour, and my weal eschewed | 10 | /˘·/˘····/ |
| That false ally who said he came from Thee, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| With promise vain of power and liberty. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘˘ |
| I trust:--I'll do. Change Thou the bad to good!-- | 10 | ·········· |
| But ere I raise me to that altitude, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Needs must I merge in Thee as Thou in me. | 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.