To D. Alonso De Avalo, Marquis Del Vasto XXIII
Prostrate on earth the lofty column lies,That late sustained my life; oh how much joy,How many hopes did one dark day destroy!And on the wind each blest idea flies.How sure to fail is Fancy, when she triesTo build aught durable for me! fresh woesCome with the force of persecuting foes,And like abandoned things my hopes chastise:Oft times I yield, yet oft my tyrants face,With a new fury that might break in twainA mountain placed to bar my way--impell'dBy the desire some day to turn again--Turn to behold her loveliness and grace,Whom it were better ne'er to have beheld.
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To D. Alonso De Avalo, Marquis Del Vasto XXIII is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Garcilasso de la Vega, Project Gutenberg ebook #49410, the J. H. Wiffen 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: Garcilaso de la Vega, To D. Alonso De Avalo, Marquis Del Vasto XXIII, in The Works of Garcilasso de la Vega (1823), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49410, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/garcilaso-works/to-d-alonso-de-avalo-marquis-del-vasto-xxiii.html, id L18725.
Form and metre
To D. Alonso De Avalo, Marquis Del Vasto XXIII is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAACCADEFEDF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBAACCADEFEDF liesA · joyB · destroyB · fliesA · triesA · woesC · foesC · chastiseA · faceD · twainE · impell'dF · againE · graceD · beheldF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Prostrate on earth the lofty column lies, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| That late sustained my life; oh how much joy, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| How many hopes did one dark day destroy! | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And on the wind each blest idea flies. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| How sure to fail is Fancy, when she tries | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To build aught durable for me! fresh woes | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Come with the force of persecuting foes, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| And like abandoned things my hopes chastise: | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Oft times I yield, yet oft my tyrants face, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With a new fury that might break in twain | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A mountain placed to bar my way--impell'd | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| By the desire some day to turn again-- | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Turn to behold her loveliness and grace, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘˘·· |
| Whom it were better ne'er to have beheld. | 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.