In a Gothic Church
They rise aloft, marching in awful file,The polished shafts immense of marble grey,And in the sacred darkness seem to beAn army of giants
Who wage a war with the invisible;The silent arches soar and spring apartIn distant flight, then re-embrace againAnd droop on high.
So in the discord of unhappy men,From out their barbarous tumult there go upTo God the sighs of solitary soulsIn Him united.
Of you I ask no God, ye marble shafts,Ye airy vaults! I tremble—but I watchTo hear a dainty well-known footstep wakenThe solemn echoes.
'Tis Lidia, and she turns, and, slowly turning,Her tresses full of light reveal themselves,And love is shining from a pale shy faceBehind the veil.
Words in this poem
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In a Gothic Church 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, In a Gothic Church, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/in-a-gothic-church.html, id L26519.
Form and metre
In a Gothic Church is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They rise aloft, marching in awful file, | 10 | ··˘//˘·/˘· |
| The polished shafts immense of marble grey, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| And in the sacred darkness seem to be | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| An army of giants | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Who wage a war with the invisible; | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| The silent arches soar and spring apart | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| In distant flight, then re-embrace again | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| And droop on high. | 4 | ···· |
| So in the discord of unhappy men, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| From out their barbarous tumult there go up | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To God the sighs of solitary souls | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| In Him united. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Of you I ask no God, ye marble shafts, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ye airy vaults! I tremble—but I watch | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| To hear a dainty well-known footstep waken | 11 | ···/˘··/·/˘ |
| The solemn echoes. | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| 'Tis Lidia, and she turns, and, slowly turning, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Her tresses full of light reveal themselves, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| And love is shining from a pale shy face | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Behind the veil. | 4 | ···· |
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.