Passa la nave mia, sola, tra il pianto
My lonely bark beneath the seagull's screamingPursues her way across the stormy sea;Around her mingle, in tumultuous glee,The roar of waters and the lightning's gleaming.
And memory, down whose face the tears are streaming,Looks for the shore it can no longer see;While hope, that struggled long and wearilyWith broken oar, at last gives up its dreaming.
Still at the helm erect my spirit stands,Gazing at sea and sky, and bravely cryingAmid the howling winds and groaning strands:Sail on, sail on, O crew, all fates defying,Till at the gate of dark oblivion's landsWe see afar the white shores of the dying.
Words in this poem
- screaming a.
- Uttering screams; shrieking.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- wearily adv.
- In a weary manner.
- bravely adv.
- In a brave manner; courageously; gallantly; valiantly; splendidly; nobly.
- 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]
- 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
Passa la nave mia, sola, tra il pianto 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, Passa la nave mia, sola, tra il pianto, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/passa-la-nave-mia-sola-tra-il-pianto.html, id L26526.
Form and metre
Passa la nave mia, sola, tra il pianto is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 screamingA · seaB · gleeB · gleamingA
- 2 ABBA streamingA · seeB · wearilyB · dreamingA
- 3 ABABAB standsA · cryingB · strandsA · defyingB · landsA · dyingB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My lonely bark beneath the seagull's screaming | 11 | ·/˘····/·/˘ |
| Pursues her way across the stormy sea; | 10 | ˘/··˘/·/˘· |
| Around her mingle, in tumultuous glee, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The roar of waters and the lightning's gleaming. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And memory, down whose face the tears are streaming, | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Looks for the shore it can no longer see; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| While hope, that struggled long and wearily | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| With broken oar, at last gives up its dreaming. | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Still at the helm erect my spirit stands, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Gazing at sea and sky, and bravely crying | 11 | /˘·····/˘/˘ |
| Amid the howling winds and groaning strands: | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Sail on, sail on, O crew, all fates defying, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Till at the gate of dark oblivion's lands | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| We see afar the white shores of the dying. | 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.