In Santa Croce
O great Ones born in that our Nation's hourTo which the world did long look back admiringAs to a springtime when the heavens' inspiringPoured equal gifts of anger, love, and power,
For slavery has Italia sold her dower,And feasts with those against her weal conspiring;At your high shrines in vain were my requiringOf what may soothe the griefs that on me lower.
The present race such ancestry belyingSeeks but the ease of death, as in its tomb.Here lives, and only here, the ancient Nation!And here I stay shivering amid the gloom,Breathing upon the world my imprecation,Doomed to live ever by my scorn undying.
Words in this poem
- admiring a.
- Expressing admiration; as, an admiring glance.
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- undying a.
- Not dying; imperishable; unending; immortal; as, the undying souls of men.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Santa Croce 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 Santa Croce, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/in-santa-croce.html, id L26537.
Form and metre
In Santa Croce is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 hourA · admiringB · inspiringB · powerA
- 2 -AA- dower · conspiringA · requiringA · lower
- 3 ABCBCA belyingA · tombB · nationC · gloomB · imprecationC · undyingA
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O great Ones born in that our Nation's hour | 11 | ······//˘/˘ |
| To which the world did long look back admiring | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| As to a springtime when the heavens' inspiring | 12 | ···/···/˘˘/˘ |
| Poured equal gifts of anger, love, and power, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| For slavery has Italia sold her dower, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| And feasts with those against her weal conspiring; | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| At your high shrines in vain were my requiring | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Of what may soothe the griefs that on me lower. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| The present race such ancestry belying | 11 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Seeks but the ease of death, as in its tomb. | 10 | ·········· |
| Here lives, and only here, the ancient Nation! | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And here I stay shivering amid the gloom, | 10 | ····/˘˘/·· |
| Breathing upon the world my imprecation, | 11 | /˘········· |
| Doomed to live ever by my scorn undying. | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
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.