Alessandro Marchetti
Italia! oh, no more Italia now!Scarce of her form a vestige dost thou wear:She was a queen with glory mantled--thou,A slave, degraded, and compell’d to bear,Chains gird thy hands and feet; deep clouds of careDarken thy brow, once radiant as thy skies;And shadows, born of terror and despair--Shadows of death have dimm’d thy glorious eyes.Italia! oh, Italia now no more!For thee my tears of shame and anguish flow;And the glad strains my lyre was wont to pourAre changed to dirge-notes: but my deepest woeIs, that base herds of thine own sons the whileBehold thy miseries with insulting smile.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Alessandro Marchetti is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Alessandro Marchetti, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/alessandro-marchetti.html, id L13505.
Form and metre
Alessandro Marchetti is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBCDEDEFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 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 ABABBCBCDEDEFF nowA · wearB · thouA · bearB · careB · skiesC · despairB · eyesC · moreD · flowE · pourD · woeE · whileF · smileF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Italia! oh, no more Italia now! | 10 | ˘/˘···˘/˘· |
| Scarce of her form a vestige dost thou wear: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| She was a queen with glory mantled--thou, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| A slave, degraded, and compell’d to bear, | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Chains gird thy hands and feet; deep clouds of care | 10 | ·········· |
| Darken thy brow, once radiant as thy skies; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And shadows, born of terror and despair-- | 10 | ·/···/˘·˘/ |
| Shadows of death have dimm’d thy glorious eyes. | 10 | /······/˘· |
| Italia! oh, Italia now no more! | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| For thee my tears of shame and anguish flow; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the glad strains my lyre was wont to pour | 10 | ·········· |
| Are changed to dirge-notes: but my deepest woe | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Is, that base herds of thine own sons the while | 10 | ·········· |
| Behold thy miseries with insulting smile. | 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.