Vittorio Alfieri
O supreme wrestler on Italia's plains!See how a race grown feeble and despairing,Even from thee the sacred laurel tearing,The rising of thy holy wrath restrains!
To what high prize thou hold'st the guiding reins,Whither aloft the stars with thee are faring,The while the age, to its vile feasts repairing,Each day tastes viands new and still complains.
“Ungrateful world, O son; and made still worseBy listless souls who on their way proceedWith neither word of chiding nor of praising.And where to evil thought is linked the curseOf instincts vile, what heart or mind can readThose distant heights on which my soul is gazing!”
Words in this poem
- wrestler n.
- One who wrestles; one who is skillful in wrestling. [AS. wræstlere.]
- despairing a.
- Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless.
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- ungrateful a.
- Not grateful; not thankful for favors; making no returns, or making ill return for kindness, attention, etc.; ingrateful. South.
- listless a.
- Having no desire or inclination; indifferent; heedless; spiritless. [OE. listles, lustles. See Lust.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vittorio Alfieri 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, Vittorio Alfieri, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/vittorio-alfieri.html, id L26534.
Form and metre
Vittorio Alfieri 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 88%).
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 plainsA · despairingB · tearingB · restrainsA
- 2 ABBA reinsA · faringB · repairingB · complainsA
- 3 ABCABC worseA · proceedB · praisingC · curseA · readB · gazingC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O supreme wrestler on Italia's plains! | 10 | ·˘//˘·˘/˘· |
| See how a race grown feeble and despairing, | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| Even from thee the sacred laurel tearing, | 11 | /˘···/˘/˘/˘ |
| The rising of thy holy wrath restrains! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| To what high prize thou hold'st the guiding reins, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whither aloft the stars with thee are faring, | 11 | /˘˘/·····/˘ |
| The while the age, to its vile feasts repairing, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Each day tastes viands new and still complains. | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| “Ungrateful world, O son; and made still worse | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| By listless souls who on their way proceed | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| With neither word of chiding nor of praising. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| And where to evil thought is linked the curse | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of instincts vile, what heart or mind can read | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Those distant heights on which my soul is gazing!” | 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.