Voice from Beneath
Be still, thou maiden sad,Be still, O grieving mother, and thou, child,Found starving, when shut down the night's great gloom!Behold! what festive lightsGleam in the palace windows, where uniteThe ruling orders of our favoured land,And magistrates and soldiers of renown,And doctors, mix with merchants of the town.
The bloom of thy best yearsThou spoilest, girl, while thou dost pine in vainFor that sweet love and life that all desire.Laugh rather, and be gay,In dazzling robes of silk and gold held upBy hand fair as a countess's, while you hasteTo join the dance! Then weep and wait—what for?The garb of shame that's waiting at thy door!
As if the tears had frozenBetween the eyelids of the dying boyWhom thou couldst not revive, O wretched mother,And turned to precious gems,So shines the fillet in the dame's black hair,With whom the economist, gallant and suave,Holds speech! His lips a smile do wear,As if a kiss each honied word did bear.
Seize and enjoy your triumph,O Masks! so happy and so powerful.And when the coming dawn drives folk to work,Go out and show yourselves,Belching your ill-digested orgies forth;Flaunting your pomp before their humble fast;Nor dream the day when, at your gilded gate,Grim Hunger and his brother Death shall wait.
Words in this poem
- favoured a.
- Countenanced; aided; regarded with kidness; as, a favored friend.
- garb n.
- External appearance, as expressive of the feelings or character; looks; fashion or manner, as of speech. [OF. garbe looks, countenance, grace, ornament, fr. OHG. garawi, garwi, ornament, dress. akin to E. gear. See Gear, n.]
- economist n.
- One who economizes, or manages domestic or other concerns with frugality; one who expends money, time, or labor, judiciously, and without waste. [Cf. F. économiste.]
- suave a.
- Sweet; pleasant; delightful; gracious or agreeable in manner; bland. [L. suavis sweet, pleasant: cf. F. suave. See Sweet, and cf. Suasion.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Voice from Beneath 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, Voice from Beneath, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/voice-from-beneath.html, id L26531.
Form and metre
Voice from Beneath is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ------AA sad · child · gloom · lights · unite · land · renownA · townA
- 2 ------AA years · vain · desire · gay · up · haste · forA · doorA
- 3 ----A-AA frozen · boy · mother · gems · hairA · suave · wearA · bearA
- 4 ------AA triumph · powerful · work · yourselves · forth · fast · gateA · waitA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Be still, thou maiden sad, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Be still, O grieving mother, and thou, child, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Found starving, when shut down the night's great gloom! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Behold! what festive lights | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Gleam in the palace windows, where unite | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/· |
| The ruling orders of our favoured land, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·//˘· |
| And magistrates and soldiers of renown, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And doctors, mix with merchants of the town. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The bloom of thy best years | 6 | ······ |
| Thou spoilest, girl, while thou dost pine in vain | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| For that sweet love and life that all desire. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Laugh rather, and be gay, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| In dazzling robes of silk and gold held up | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| By hand fair as a countess's, while you haste | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To join the dance! Then weep and wait—what for? | 10 | ·········· |
| The garb of shame that's waiting at thy door! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As if the tears had frozen | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Between the eyelids of the dying boy | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Whom thou couldst not revive, O wretched mother, | 11 | ····˘/·/˘/˘ |
| And turned to precious gems, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| So shines the fillet in the dame's black hair, | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| With whom the economist, gallant and suave, | 10 | ···˘/˘/˘·· |
| Holds speech! His lips a smile do wear, | 8 | ········ |
| As if a kiss each honied word did bear. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Seize and enjoy your triumph, | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| O Masks! so happy and so powerful. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And when the coming dawn drives folk to work, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Go out and show yourselves, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Belching your ill-digested orgies forth; | 10 | /˘··/·˘/˘· |
| Flaunting your pomp before their humble fast; | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Nor dream the day when, at your gilded gate, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Grim Hunger and his brother Death shall wait. | 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.