Voice from the Palace
Couldst thou, O north wind, comingFrom the deep bosom of the moaning valley,Or, wandering in the aisles of songful pines,Or through a lonely cloister's corridors,Chant to me in a thousand sounds—The piping of reeds, the roaring of wild beasts,And cries of human woe!That would be my delight, the while I knowOn yon cold height there lies the winter's snow.
A shower of white darknessFills all the sleepy air; the snowy plainFades into the horizon far away.Meanwhile, the sun's great disk grows faintly redAs wearily it sinks behind the clouds,Staring as 'twere a lidless human eye.No breeze, no breath among the hills is stirred,Nor traveller's voice, nor song of children heard,
But the loud crash of branchesToo heavily bent by burden of the snow,And sharp explosions of the cracking ice,Arcadia sing and Zephyrus inviteTo your sweet company in meadows fair.Now nature's mute and haughty horror dothAdd zest to pleasure! Come, Eurilla, makeThe drowsy coals a livelier sparkle take!
On me let them be castingA light serenely flashing, such as springDoth carry with her wheresoever she goeth.The mouthing actorNo more the boxes heed, when 'mid the sightOf all that crowded brilliancy and beauty,And perfumed tresses, and enwreathéd flowers,There comes the scent of April's fruitful showers.
Words in this poem
- songful a.
- Disposed to sing; full of song.
- piping a.
- Playing on a musical pipe. [From Pipe, v.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- wearily adv.
- In a weary manner.
- lidless a.
- Having no lid, or not covered with the lids, as the eyes; hence, sleepless; watchful.
- arcadia n.
- A mountainous and picturesque district of Greece, in the heart of the Peloponnesus, whose people were distinguished for contentment and rural happiness.
- zephyrus n.
- The west wind, or zephyr; -- usually personified, and made the most mild and gentle of all the sylvan deities. [L. See Zephyr.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
- serenely adv.
- In a serene manner; clearly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Voice from the Palace 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 Palace, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/voice-from-the-palace.html, id L26527.
Form and metre
Voice from the Palace is 33 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ------AAA coming · valley · pines · corridors · sounds · beasts · woeA · knowA · snowA
- 2 ------AA darkness · plain · away · red · clouds · eye · stirredA · heardA
- 3 ------AA branches · snow · ice · invite · fair · doth · makeA · takeA
- 4 AA----BB castingA · springA · goeth · actor · sight · beauty · flowersB · showersB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Couldst thou, O north wind, coming | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| From the deep bosom of the moaning valley, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Or, wandering in the aisles of songful pines, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Or through a lonely cloister's corridors, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Chant to me in a thousand sounds— | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The piping of reeds, the roaring of wild beasts, | 11 | ·/˘···/˘··· |
| And cries of human woe! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That would be my delight, the while I know | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| On yon cold height there lies the winter's snow. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A shower of white darkness | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Fills all the sleepy air; the snowy plain | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Fades into the horizon far away. | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Meanwhile, the sun's great disk grows faintly red | 10 | /······/˘· |
| As wearily it sinks behind the clouds, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Staring as 'twere a lidless human eye. | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| No breeze, no breath among the hills is stirred, | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor traveller's voice, nor song of children heard, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| But the loud crash of branches | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Too heavily bent by burden of the snow, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And sharp explosions of the cracking ice, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Arcadia sing and Zephyrus invite | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| To your sweet company in meadows fair. | 10 | ···/˘˘·/·· |
| Now nature's mute and haughty horror doth | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Add zest to pleasure! Come, Eurilla, make | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The drowsy coals a livelier sparkle take! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| On me let them be casting | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A light serenely flashing, such as spring | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Doth carry with her wheresoever she goeth. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| The mouthing actor | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| No more the boxes heed, when 'mid the sight | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of all that crowded brilliancy and beauty, | 11 | ···/˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| And perfumed tresses, and enwreathéd flowers, | 10 | ·˘//˘···/˘ |
| There comes the scent of April's fruitful showers. | 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.