On a Saint Peter's Eve
I remember the sun across the red vapours descending,and falling into the sea like a great shield of brass,which shines wavering over the bloody field of war,then drops and is seen no more.Little Castiglioncello, high amid heaps of oaks,blushing in her glazed windows, returned a coquettish smile.I, meanwhile, languid and sad [with fever still lingering in me,and my nerves all heavy and lifeless as if they were weighted with lead],looked from my window. Swiftly the swallowswove and rewove their crooked flight around the eaves,while in shadows malarious the brown sparrows were chattering.Beyond the wood were the varied hills and the plainpartly razed by the scythe, partly still yellow and waving.Away through the grey furrows rose the smoke of the smouldering stubble,and whether or no did there come through the humid airthe song of the reapers, long, distant, mournful, and wearied?Everywhere brooded a heaviness, in the air, in the woods, on the shore.I gazed at the falling sun—“Proud light of the world,Like a Cyclops heavy with wine thou lookest down on our life”—Then screamed the peacocks, mocking me from among the pomegranates,and a vagrant bat as it passed me grazed my head.
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]
- coquettish a.
- Practicing or exhibiting coquetry; alluring; enticing.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- wove
- p. pr. & rare vb. n. of Weave.
- chattering n.
- The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter.
- razed a.
- Slashed or striped in patterns.
- smouldering a.
- Being in a state of suppressed activity; quiet but not dead.
- heaviness n.
- The state or quality of being heavy in its various senses; weight; sadness; sluggishness; oppression; thickness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Saint Peter's Eve 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, On a Saint Peter's Eve, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/on-a-saint-peter-s-eve.html, id L26524.
Form and metre
On a Saint Peter's Eve is 21 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 --AA---B--------A---B descending · brass · warA · moreA · oaks · smile · me · leadB · swallows · eaves · chattering · plain · waving · stubble · air · wearied · shoreA · world · life · pomegranates · headB
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 remember the sun across the red vapours descending, | 15 | ·˘/˘··˘/··/˘˘/˘ |
| and falling into the sea like a great shield of brass, | 13 | ·/˘·········· |
| which shines wavering over the bloody field of war, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| then drops and is seen no more. | 7 | ······· |
| Little Castiglioncello, high amid heaps of oaks, | 13 | /˘······˘/··· |
| blushing in her glazed windows, returned a coquettish smile. | 14 | /˘···/˘˘/·˘/˘· |
| I, meanwhile, languid and sad [with fever still lingering in me, | 15 | ·/·/˘···/˘·/˘·· |
| and my nerves all heavy and lifeless as if they were weighted with lead], | 17 | ····/˘·/˘····/˘·· |
| looked from my window. Swiftly the swallows | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/˘ |
| wove and rewove their crooked flight around the eaves, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| while in shadows malarious the brown sparrows were chattering. | 14 | ··/······/˘·/˘ |
| Beyond the wood were the varied hills and the plain | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| partly razed by the scythe, partly still yellow and waving. | 14 | /˘····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Away through the grey furrows rose the smoke of the smouldering stubble, | 17 | ˘/···/˘········/˘ |
| and whether or no did there come through the humid air | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| the song of the reapers, long, distant, mournful, and wearied? | 14 | ····/˘·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Everywhere brooded a heaviness, in the air, in the woods, on the shore. | 18 | /˘·/˘·/˘˘········· |
| I gazed at the falling sun—“Proud light of the world, | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| Like a Cyclops heavy with wine thou lookest down on our life”— | 15 | ··/·/˘···/˘··/· |
| Then screamed the peacocks, mocking me from among the pomegranates, | 16 | ···/·/˘········· |
| and a vagrant bat as it passed me grazed my head. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
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