Virgil
As when above the heated fields the moonHovers to spread its veil of summer frost,The brook between its narrow banks half lostGlitters in pale light, murmuring its low tune;
The nightingale pours forth her secret boon,Whose strains the lonely traveller accost;He sees his dear one's golden tresses tossed,And time forgets in love's entrancing swoon;
And the orphaned mother who has grieved in vainUpon the tomb looks to the silent skiesAnd feels their white light on her sorrow shine;
Meanwhile the mountains laugh, and the far-off main,And through the lofty trees a fresh wind sighs:Such is thy verse to me, Poet divine!
Words in this poem
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Virgil 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, Virgil, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/virgil.html, id L26509.
Form and metre
Virgil is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. 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.
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 moonA · frostB · lostB · tuneA
- 2 ABBA boonA · accostB · tossedB · swoonA
- 3 CDE vainC · skiesD · shineE
- 4 CDE mainC · sighsD · divineE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As when above the heated fields the moon | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Hovers to spread its veil of summer frost, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| The brook between its narrow banks half lost | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Glitters in pale light, murmuring its low tune; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| The nightingale pours forth her secret boon, | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Whose strains the lonely traveller accost; | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| He sees his dear one's golden tresses tossed, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And time forgets in love's entrancing swoon; | 10 | ··˘/··/˘˘· |
| And the orphaned mother who has grieved in vain | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| Upon the tomb looks to the silent skies | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And feels their white light on her sorrow shine; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Meanwhile the mountains laugh, and the far-off main, | 11 | /··/˘······ |
| And through the lofty trees a fresh wind sighs: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Such is thy verse to me, Poet divine! | 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.