Francesco Maria De Conti: The Shore of Africa
Pilgrim! whose steps those desert sands explore,Where verdure never spreads its bright array;Know, ’twas on this inhospitable shoreFrom Pompey’s heart the life-blood ebb’d away.Twas here betray’d he fell, neglected lay;Nor found his relics a sepulchral stone,Whose life, so long a bright triumphal day,O’er Tiber’s wave supreme in glory shone!Thou, stranger! if from barbarous climes thy birth,Look round exultingly, and bless the earthWhere Rome, with him, saw power and virtue die;But if ’tis Roman blood that fills thy veins,Then, son of heroes! think upon thy chains,And bathe with tears the grave of liberty.
Words in this poem
- explore v. t.
- To seek for or after; to strive to attain by search; to look wisely and carefully for. [L. explorare to explore; ex out+plorare to cry out aloud,prob. orig., to cause to flow; perh. akin to E. flow: cf. F. explorer.]
- inhospitable a.
- Not hospitable; not disposed to show hospitality to strangers or guests; as, an inhospitable person or people. [Pref. in- not + hospitable: cf. L. inhospitalis.]
- triumphal n.
- A token of victory.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Francesco Maria De Conti: The Shore of Africa 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, Francesco Maria De Conti: The Shore of Africa, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/francesco-maria-de-conti-the-shore-of-africa.html, id L13507.
Form and metre
Francesco Maria De Conti: The Shore of Africa is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 ABABBCBCDD-EE- exploreA · arrayB · shoreA · awayB · layB · stoneC · dayB · shoneC · birthD · earthD · die · veinsE · chainsE · liberty
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pilgrim! whose steps those desert sands explore, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Where verdure never spreads its bright array; | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Know, ’twas on this inhospitable shore | 10 | ····˘/˘˘˘· |
| From Pompey’s heart the life-blood ebb’d away. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘/ |
| Twas here betray’d he fell, neglected lay; | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| Nor found his relics a sepulchral stone, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Whose life, so long a bright triumphal day, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| O’er Tiber’s wave supreme in glory shone! | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Thou, stranger! if from barbarous climes thy birth, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Look round exultingly, and bless the earth | 10 | ·········· |
| Where Rome, with him, saw power and virtue die; | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| But if ’tis Roman blood that fills thy veins, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Then, son of heroes! think upon thy chains, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And bathe with tears the grave of liberty. | 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.