Non son quell'io che già d'amiche cene
I am not he who amid wine cups flowingRouses to joy the festive board of friends:Heavy with bitter weariness is goingThe time that to my mind no banquet sends.
Anger alone is that fierce life bestowingOver whose board my heart all ravenous bends.O fair green years when brightest hopes were growingThat now lie withered as when summer ends!
Even the charm of sweet imaginationNo more its soul-beguiling power retains,But in its place stands life, mute, dread, appalling,And over all a shade whose intonationAs if of grief that it alone remainsTo some still shore afar is ever calling.
Words in this poem
- 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]
- appalling a.
- Such as to appall; as, an appalling accident.
- intonation n.
- A thundering; thunder. Bailey. [See 1st Intonate.]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Non son quell'io che già d'amiche cene 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, Non son quell'io che già d'amiche cene, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/non-son-quell-io-che-gi-d-amiche-cene.html, id L26546.
Form and metre
Non son quell'io che già d'amiche cene is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 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 ABAB flowingA · friendsB · goingA · sendsB
- 2 ABAB bestowingA · bendsB · growingA · endsB
- 3 ABCABC imaginationA · retainsB · appallingC · intonationA · remainsB · callingC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I am not he who amid wine cups flowing | 11 | ·····˘/··/˘ |
| Rouses to joy the festive board of friends: | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Heavy with bitter weariness is going | 11 | /˘·/˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| The time that to my mind no banquet sends. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Anger alone is that fierce life bestowing | 11 | /˘˘/····˘/˘ |
| Over whose board my heart all ravenous bends. | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| O fair green years when brightest hopes were growing | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| That now lie withered as when summer ends! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Even the charm of sweet imagination | 11 | /˘····˘·˘/˘ |
| No more its soul-beguiling power retains, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘/ |
| But in its place stands life, mute, dread, appalling, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| And over all a shade whose intonation | 11 | ·······˘˘/˘ |
| As if of grief that it alone remains | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| To some still shore afar is ever calling. | 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.