The Ancient Tuscan Poetry
A child in gardens, fields, and city squaresI grew 'mid war's alarms and love's alluring;But manhood's school of mysteries and caresEnticed me to the temple's dark immuring.
Where now the lofty dames, with glance securingWhat free-born knight or brave civilian dares?Bright April days the roses bloom assuring?The oak that through the castle rampart stares?
Poor and alone, again to that dear dwellingI come where pious love did once denyThat I should heed the Enchantress' sweet impelling.Open! O Child: though be the times awry,Thy vision, Beatrice, wakes my heart's rebelling,—Open! The Tuscan poesy am I!
Words in this poem
- civilian n.
- One skilled in the civil law. [From Civil]
- assuring a.
- That assures; tending to assure; giving confidence.
- poesy n.
- The art of composing poems; poetical skill or faculty; as, the heavenly gift of poesy. [F. poésie (cf. It. poesia), L. poesis, from Gr. Posy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Ancient Tuscan Poetry 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, The Ancient Tuscan Poetry, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/the-ancient-tuscan-poetry.html, id L26547.
Form and metre
The Ancient Tuscan Poetry 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 89%).
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 squaresA · alluringB · caresA · immuringB
- 2 ABAB securingA · daresB · assuringA · staresB
- 3 ABABAB dwellingA · denyB · impellingA · awryB · rebellingA · iB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A child in gardens, fields, and city squares | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I grew 'mid war's alarms and love's alluring; | 11 | ····˘/··˘/˘ |
| But manhood's school of mysteries and cares | 10 | ·/···/˘˘·· |
| Enticed me to the temple's dark immuring. | 11 | ˘/···/˘···· |
| Where now the lofty dames, with glance securing | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| What free-born knight or brave civilian dares? | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Bright April days the roses bloom assuring? | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| The oak that through the castle rampart stares? | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Poor and alone, again to that dear dwelling | 11 | ··˘/˘/···/˘ |
| I come where pious love did once deny | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| That I should heed the Enchantress' sweet impelling. | 12 | ·····˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Open! O Child: though be the times awry, | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Thy vision, Beatrice, wakes my heart's rebelling,— | 11 | ·/˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| Open! The Tuscan poesy am I! | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘˘·· |
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.