From the Spanish of Sor Marcela De Carpio
Let them say to my LoverThat here I lie!The thing of His pleasure,His slave am I.
Say that I seek HimOnly for love,And welcome are torturesMy passion to prove.
Love giving giftsIs suspicious and cold;I have all, my Beloved,When Thee I hold.
Hope and devotionThe good may gain;I am but worthyOf passion and pain.
So noble a LordNone serves in vain,For the pay of my loveIs my love's sweet pain.
I love Thee, to love Thee,--No more I desire;By faith is nourishedMy love's strong fire.
I kiss Thy handsWhen I feel their blows;In the place of caressesThou givest me woes.
But in Thy chastisingIs joy and peace.O Master and Love,Let Thy blows not cease.
Thy beauty, Beloved,With scorn is rife,But I know that Thou lovest me,Better than life.
And because thou lovest me,Lover of mine,Death can but make meUtterly Thine.
I die with longingThy face to see;Oh! sweet is the anguishOf death to me!
Words in this poem
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From the Spanish of Sor Marcela De Carpio is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Hay, From the Spanish of Sor Marcela De Carpio, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/from-the-spanish-of-sor-marcela-de-carpio.html, id L21643.
Form and metre
From the Spanish of Sor Marcela De Carpio is 44 lines in 11 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-A lover · lieA · pleasure · iA
- 2 -A-A him · loveA · tortures · proveA
- 3 -A-A gifts · coldA · beloved · holdA
- 4 AA-A devotionA · gainA · worthy · painA
- 5 -A-A lord · vainA · love · painA
- 6 -A-A thee · desireA · nourished · fireA
- 7 -AAA hands · blowsA · caressesA · woesA
- 8 -A-A chastising · peaceA · love · ceaseA
- 9 -A-A beloved · rifeA · me · lifeA
- 10 ABAB meA · mineB · meA · thineB
- 11 -A-A longing · seeA · anguish · meA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Let them say to my Lover | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That here I lie! | 4 | ···· |
| The thing of His pleasure, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| His slave am I. | 4 | ···· |
| Say that I seek Him | 5 | ····· |
| Only for love, | 4 | /˘·· |
| And welcome are tortures | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| My passion to prove. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Love giving gifts | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Is suspicious and cold; | 6 | ·˘/˘·· |
| I have all, my Beloved, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| When Thee I hold. | 4 | ···· |
| Hope and devotion | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| The good may gain; | 4 | ···· |
| I am but worthy | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Of passion and pain. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| So noble a Lord | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| None serves in vain, | 4 | ···· |
| For the pay of my love | 6 | ······ |
| Is my love's sweet pain. | 5 | ····· |
| I love Thee, to love Thee,-- | 6 | ······ |
| No more I desire; | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| By faith is nourished | 5 | ···/˘ |
| My love's strong fire. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I kiss Thy hands | 4 | ···· |
| When I feel their blows; | 5 | ····· |
| In the place of caresses | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Thou givest me woes. | 5 | ····· |
| But in Thy chastising | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Is joy and peace. | 4 | ···· |
| O Master and Love, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Let Thy blows not cease. | 5 | ····· |
| Thy beauty, Beloved, | 5 | ·/˘˘/ |
| With scorn is rife, | 4 | ···· |
| But I know that Thou lovest me, | 8 | ········ |
| Better than life. | 4 | /˘·· |
| And because thou lovest me, | 7 | ······· |
| Lover of mine, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Death can but make me | 5 | ····· |
| Utterly Thine. | 4 | /˘˘· |
| I die with longing | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Thy face to see; | 4 | ···· |
| Oh! sweet is the anguish | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Of death to me! | 4 | ···· |
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.