Out of the Italian
Love now no fire hath left him,We two betwixt us have divided it.Your eyes the light hath reft him,The heat commanding in my heart doth sit.O that poore Love be not for ever spoyled,Let my heat to your light be reconciled.
So shall these flames, whose worthNow all obscured lyes:--Drest in those beames--start forthAnd dance before your eyes.Or else partake my flames(I care not whither)And so in mutuall namesOf Love, burne both together.
Would any one the true cause findHow Love came nak't, a boy, and blind?'Tis this: listning one day too long,So th' Syrens in my mistris' song,The extasie of a delightSo much o're-mastring all his might,To that one sense, made all else thrall,And so he lost his clothes, eyes, heart and all.
Words in this poem
- betwixt prep.
- In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
- reft n.
- A chink; a rift. See Rift. Rom. of R.
- 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,]
- 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.]
- mutuall a.
- Reciprocally acting or related; reciprocally receiving and giving; reciprocally given and received; reciprocal; interchanged; as, a mutual love, advantage, assistance, aversion, etc. [F. mutuel, L. mutuus, orig., exchanged, borrowed, lent; akin to mutare to change. See Mutable.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Out of the Italian is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I, Project Gutenberg ebook #38549; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Richard Crashaw, Out of the Italian, in Steps to the Temple and Other Poems (1646–1652), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38549, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/crashaw-poems/out-of-the-italian.html, id L12112.
Form and metre
Out of the Italian is 22 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC himA · itB · himA · sitB · spoyledC · reconciledC
- 2 -A-AB-B- worth · lyesA · forth · eyesA · flamesB · whither · namesB · together
- 3 AABBCCDD findA · blindA · longB · songB · delightC · mightC · thrallD · allD
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Love now no fire hath left him, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| We two betwixt us have divided it. | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| Your eyes the light hath reft him, | 7 | ······· |
| The heat commanding in my heart doth sit. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| O that poore Love be not for ever spoyled, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Let my heat to your light be reconciled. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| So shall these flames, whose worth | 6 | ······ |
| Now all obscured lyes: | 5 | ··˘/· |
| --Drest in those beames--start forth | 6 | ······ |
| And dance before your eyes. | 6 | ······ |
| Or else partake my flames | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| (I care not whither) | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And so in mutuall names | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Of Love, burne both together. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Would any one the true cause find | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| How Love came nak't, a boy, and blind? | 8 | ········ |
| 'Tis this: listning one day too long, | 8 | ········ |
| So th' Syrens in my mistris' song, | 8 | ········ |
| The extasie of a delight | 8 | ······˘/ |
| So much o're-mastring all his might, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| To that one sense, made all else thrall, | 8 | ········ |
| And so he lost his clothes, eyes, heart and all. | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 1
A. R. Waller's notes to Crashaw's Steps to the Temple (Cambridge, 1904; Project Gutenberg #38549).
- Stanza 1, line 4 TURNBULL glaringly misprints 'The heart commanding in my heart,' and in line 15, 'O love;' the latter after 1670 as usual, the former his own. G.
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