Carlo Goldoni
O Terence of the Adria, to whose penItalia's land did give such vengeful powerThat, as from rebel soil a noble flower,So rose alive the Latin soul again.
See! where should rule a race of noble men,Sharing in righteous deal their bounteous dower,There art, beshadowed with base passion's glower,Goes reeling to the jeering harlot's den!
Laugh! and drive out these Goths, and of their shameTear down the altars, and to the muse impartThe laurel crown the ancients loved to view.But no! To-day thou hast no dower but blame;And the base crowd proclaims in vileness newHow low has fallen our Italian art!
Words in this poem
- vengeful a.
- Vindictive; retributive; revengeful.
- rebel a.
- Pertaining to rebels or rebellion; acting in revolt; rebellious; as, rebel troops. [F. rebelle, fr. L. rebellis. See Rebel, v. t.]
- bounteous a.
- Liberal in charity; disposed to give freely; generously liberal; munificent; beneficent; free in bestowing gifts; as, bounteous production. [OE. bountevous, fr. bounte bounty.]
- glower v. i.
- to look intently; to stare angrily or with a scowl. Thackeray. [Cf. Gloar.]
- jeering a.
- Mocking; scoffing.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carlo Goldoni is in the public domain. This text is taken from By Frank Sewall (London: Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893), Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, the Frank Sewall 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: Giosuè Carducci, Carlo Goldoni, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/carlo-goldoni.html, id L26533.
Form and metre
Carlo Goldoni is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABBA penA · powerB · flowerB · againA
- 2 A--A menA · dower · glower · denA
- 3 ABCACB shameA · impartB · viewC · blameA · newC · artB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Terence of the Adria, to whose pen | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Italia's land did give such vengeful power | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘/ |
| That, as from rebel soil a noble flower, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| So rose alive the Latin soul again. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| See! where should rule a race of noble men, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sharing in righteous deal their bounteous dower, | 11 | /˘·/˘··/˘˘· |
| There art, beshadowed with base passion's glower, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Goes reeling to the jeering harlot's den! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Laugh! and drive out these Goths, and of their shame | 10 | ·········· |
| Tear down the altars, and to the muse impart | 11 | ···/˘····˘/ |
| The laurel crown the ancients loved to view. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But no! To-day thou hast no dower but blame; | 10 | ·········· |
| And the base crowd proclaims in vileness new | 11 | ····˘/····· |
| How low has fallen our Italian art! | 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.