Old Figurines
Like as an infant, beaten by its motheror but half conquered in a wayward quarrel,tired, falls asleep, with its little fiststight clenched and with tear-wet eyelids,—
So does my passion, O fair Lalage,sleep in my bosom; nor thinking, nor caring,whether in rosy May-time wander playingthe other happy infants in the sun.
O wake 't not, Lalage! or thou shalt hearmy passion, like a very God of battles,putting an end to sports so innocent,to flay the very heavens with its raging!
Words in this poem
- wayward a.
- Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Old Figurines 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, Old Figurines, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/old-figurines.html, id L26548.
Form and metre
Old Figurines is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Like as an infant, beaten by its mother | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| or but half conquered in a wayward quarrel, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| tired, falls asleep, with its little fists | 10 | /˘·˘/··/˘· |
| tight clenched and with tear-wet eyelids,— | 9 | ··˘····/· |
| So does my passion, O fair Lalage, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| sleep in my bosom; nor thinking, nor caring, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| whether in rosy May-time wander playing | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| the other happy infants in the sun. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| O wake 't not, Lalage! or thou shalt hear | 10 | ·········· |
| my passion, like a very God of battles, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| putting an end to sports so innocent, | 10 | /˘·····/˘˘ |
| to flay the very heavens with its raging! | 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.