To a Horse
Hail to thee, valiant steed! To thee the palm,To thee its wild applause the ring is raising.Who slanders thee sings an ignoble psalm,In vain his own poor wit and judgment praising.
Thy body, fair as with no shining balm,But with the spirit's inward ardour blazing,Speeds to the prize. Then in what beauty calmDost thou stand still, upon thy rivals gazing!
Thou wouldst have been among the conqueringTo gain for brave Automedon the pæanThat once from Grecian lips did joyous ring!
O, that for thee might blaze the sands Elean,For thee great hymns the godlike Pindar sing,Following thee there upon the waves Alphaean!
Words in this poem
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
- ardour n.
- Heat, in a literal sense; as, the ardor of the sun's rays. [L. ardor, fr. ardere to burn: cf. OF. ardor, ardur, F. ardeur.]
- pindar n.
- The peanut (Arachis hypogæa); -- so called in the West Indies. [D. piendel.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Horse 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, To a Horse, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/to-a-horse.html, id L26522.
Form and metre
To a Horse is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 palmA · raisingB · psalmA · praisingB
- 2 ABAB balmA · blazingB · calmA · gazingB
- 3 A-A conqueringA · pæan · ringA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail to thee, valiant steed! To thee the palm, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To thee its wild applause the ring is raising. | 11 | ····˘/···/˘ |
| Who slanders thee sings an ignoble psalm, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| In vain his own poor wit and judgment praising. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Thy body, fair as with no shining balm, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| But with the spirit's inward ardour blazing, | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Speeds to the prize. Then in what beauty calm | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Dost thou stand still, upon thy rivals gazing! | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Thou wouldst have been among the conquering | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| To gain for brave Automedon the pæan | 10 | ·········· |
| That once from Grecian lips did joyous ring! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| O, that for thee might blaze the sands Elean, | 10 | ·········· |
| For thee great hymns the godlike Pindar sing, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Following thee there upon the waves Alphaean! | 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.