To Telesius of Cosenza
Telesius, the arrow from thy bowMidmost his band of sophists slays that highTyrant of souls that think; he cannot fly:While Truth soars free, loosed by the self-same blow.Proud lyres with thine immortal praises glow,Smitten by bards elate with victory:Lo, thine own Cavalcante, stormfullyLightning, still strikes the fortress of the foe!Good Gaieta bedecks our saint sereneWith robes translucent, light-irradiate,Restoring her to all her natural sheen;The while my tocsin at the temple-gateOf the wide universe proclaims her queen,Pythia of first and last ordained by fate.
Words in this poem
- midmost a.
- Middle; middlemost. [OE. middemiste. Cf. Foremost.]
- elate a.
- Lifted up; raised; elevated. [L. elatus elevated, fig., elated, proud (the figure, perh., being borrowed from a prancing horse); e out + latus (used as p. p. of ferre to bear), for tlatus, a]
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- tocsin n.
- An alarm bell, or the ringing of a bell for the purpose of alarm. [F., fr. OF. toquier to touch, F. toquer (originally, a dialectic form of F. toucher) + seint (for sein) a bell, LL. signum, fr. L. signum a sign, signal. See To]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Telesius of Cosenza 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 Telesius of Cosenza, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/to-telesius-of-cosenza.html, id L27857.
Form and metre
To Telesius of Cosenza is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABBAA--ACDCDCD bowA · highB · flyB · blowA · glowA · victory · stormfully · foeA · sereneC · irradiateD · sheenC · gateD · queenC · fateD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Telesius, the arrow from thy bow | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Midmost his band of sophists slays that high | 10 | /˘········ |
| Tyrant of souls that think; he cannot fly: | 10 | /˘·····˘/· |
| While Truth soars free, loosed by the self-same blow. | 10 | ·········· |
| Proud lyres with thine immortal praises glow, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Smitten by bards elate with victory: | 10 | /˘··˘/·/˘˘ |
| Lo, thine own Cavalcante, stormfully | 9 | ········· |
| Lightning, still strikes the fortress of the foe! | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Good Gaieta bedecks our saint serene | 10 | ···˘//˘·˘/ |
| With robes translucent, light-irradiate, | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Restoring her to all her natural sheen; | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| The while my tocsin at the temple-gate | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of the wide universe proclaims her queen, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Pythia of first and last ordained by fate. | 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.