Voice from the Hovel
O if, with living bloodFrom my heart streaming, I could thee restore,Poor, frozen body of my little son!But my heart dies within me,And feeble is the hold of my embraces,And man is deaf and God above too high.Lay, my poor little one, thy tear-wet cheekClose to thy mother's whilst I with thee speak.
Not so thy brother lay;Hardly he drew amid the stifling snowHis failing breath, as on his way he crept.After the toilsome day,Beneath a heavy load, his little stepsFailed to keep even pace with th' hurrying men,While the rough path and the night's stormy frownConspired with man to drag his courage down.
The gusts of whirling snowBeat through his ragged clothes, his wearied limbs.He falls, and, bleeding, tries to lift himself,But 'tis in vain; and hungerNow drains his little strength, and at the endOf the dolorous way he gives the struggle over;Then pious Death comes down and looks uponThe bruiséd form; and from its grave of snowHome to the mother's roof they bring it so.
Alas! with better reasonThe eagle flies for refuge from the blastUnto her eyrie on the jagged cliff,And the aged beast to his cave.A kennel warm protects the mastiff's sleep,Full fed, within the palace there, near byTo where, O child, born of love's mightier breath,An icy hand leads thee away to death.
Words in this poem
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- dolorous a.
- Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses. [L. dolorosus, from dolor: cf. F. douloureux. See Dolor.]
- eyrie n.
- The nest of a bird of prey or other large bird that builds in a lofty place; aerie. [See Aerie]
- kennel n.
- The water course of a street; a little canal or channel; a gutter; also, a puddle. Bp. Hall. [See Channel, Canal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Voice from the Hovel 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 the Hovel, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/voice-from-the-hovel.html, id L26528.
Form and metre
Voice from the Hovel is 33 lines in 4 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 ---A-ABB blood · restore · son · meA · embraces · highA · cheekB · speakB
- 2 A--A--BB layA · snow · crept · dayA · steps · men · frownB · downB
- 3 A------AA snowA · limbs · himself · hunger · end · over · upon · snowA · soA
- 4 ------AA reason · blast · cliff · cave · sleep · by · breathA · deathA
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 if, with living blood | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From my heart streaming, I could thee restore, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Poor, frozen body of my little son! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| But my heart dies within me, | 7 | ······· |
| And feeble is the hold of my embraces, | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| And man is deaf and God above too high. | 10 | ·········· |
| Lay, my poor little one, thy tear-wet cheek | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Close to thy mother's whilst I with thee speak. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Not so thy brother lay; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Hardly he drew amid the stifling snow | 10 | /˘··˘/·/˘· |
| His failing breath, as on his way he crept. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| After the toilsome day, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Beneath a heavy load, his little steps | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Failed to keep even pace with th' hurrying men, | 10 | ···/··/˘˘· |
| While the rough path and the night's stormy frown | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Conspired with man to drag his courage down. | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| The gusts of whirling snow | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Beat through his ragged clothes, his wearied limbs. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| He falls, and, bleeding, tries to lift himself, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| But 'tis in vain; and hunger | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Now drains his little strength, and at the end | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of the dolorous way he gives the struggle over; | 12 | ··/˘˘····/˘· |
| Then pious Death comes down and looks upon | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The bruiséd form; and from its grave of snow | 9 | ········· |
| Home to the mother's roof they bring it so. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Alas! with better reason | 7 | ˘/·/˘/˘ |
| The eagle flies for refuge from the blast | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Unto her eyrie on the jagged cliff, | 10 | ···/˘···˘· |
| And the aged beast to his cave. | 7 | ······· |
| A kennel warm protects the mastiff's sleep, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Full fed, within the palace there, near by | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To where, O child, born of love's mightier breath, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| An icy hand leads thee away to death. | 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.