Invocation to the Lyre
If once I cut thee with a trembling handFrom Latin bough to Phœbus that belongs,So now, O Lyre, shalt thou rehearse the songsOf the Tuscan land.
What consolations fierce to bosoms hardOf bristling warriors thou wast wont to bring,Or else in peace the soothing verse to singOf the Lesbian bard!
Thou taughtest them of Venus and of Love,And of the immortal son of Semele,The Lycian's hair, the glowing majestyOf deep-browed Jove.
Now, when I strike, comes smiling to my sideThe spirit of Flaccus, and through choirs divineOf laurelled nymphs that radiant round me shine,Calmly I glide.
O dear to Jove and Phœbus! Sway benignantWhich art chief guardian of our cities' peace,Answer our prayers! and bid the discord ceaseOf souls malignant!
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- lesbian a.
- Of or pertaining to the island anciently called Lesbos, now Mitylene, in the Grecian Archipelago.
- semele n.
- A daughter of Cadmus, and by Zeus mother of Bacchus.
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- benignant a.
- Kind; gracious; favorable. [LL. benignans, p. pr. of benignare, from L. benignus. See Benign.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Invocation to the Lyre 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, Invocation to the Lyre, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/invocation-to-the-lyre.html, id L26510.
Form and metre
Invocation to the Lyre is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. 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 ABBA handA · belongsB · songsB · landA
- 2 ABBA hardA · bringB · singB · bardA
- 4 ABBA sideA · divineB · shineB · glideA
- 5 ABBA benignantA · peaceB · ceaseB · malignantA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If once I cut thee with a trembling hand | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| From Latin bough to Phœbus that belongs, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| So now, O Lyre, shalt thou rehearse the songs | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Of the Tuscan land. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| What consolations fierce to bosoms hard | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of bristling warriors thou wast wont to bring, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Or else in peace the soothing verse to sing | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of the Lesbian bard! | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| Thou taughtest them of Venus and of Love, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And of the immortal son of Semele, | 11 | ···˘/˘··/˘· |
| The Lycian's hair, the glowing majesty | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Of deep-browed Jove. | 4 | ···· |
| Now, when I strike, comes smiling to my side | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The spirit of Flaccus, and through choirs divine | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| Of laurelled nymphs that radiant round me shine, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Calmly I glide. | 4 | /˘·· |
| O dear to Jove and Phœbus! Sway benignant | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Which art chief guardian of our cities' peace, | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| Answer our prayers! and bid the discord cease | 10 | /˘/····/˘· |
| Of souls malignant! | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
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.