To Himself
Now shalt thou rest for aye,My weary heart. The final error diesWherewith I nourished my divinest dreams.'Tis gone. I feel in me for sweet delusionsNot merely hope, but even desire, is dead.Rest for all time. EnoughHath been thine agitation. There is noughtSo precious, thou shouldst seek it; and the earthDeserveth not a sigh. But weary bitternessIs life, nought else, and ashes is the world.Be now at peace. DespairFor the last time. Unto our race did FateGive nought, save death. Now hold in scorn and hateThyself and Nature and the power unknown,That reigns supreme unto the grief of all,And the vast vanity of this terrestrial ball.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Himself is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Leopardi, Project Gutenberg ebook #53020, the Frederick Townsend 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: Giacomo Leopardi, To Himself, in The Poems of Leopardi (1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #53020, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/leopardi-poems/to-himself.html, id L15306.
Form and metre
To Himself is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 56% 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 -----------AA-BB aye · dies · dreams · delusions · dead · enough · nought · earth · bitterness · world · despair · fateA · hateA · unknown · allB · ballB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now shalt thou rest for aye, | 6 | ······ |
| My weary heart. The final error dies | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Wherewith I nourished my divinest dreams. | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/˘· |
| 'Tis gone. I feel in me for sweet delusions | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Not merely hope, but even desire, is dead. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| Rest for all time. Enough | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Hath been thine agitation. There is nought | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| So precious, thou shouldst seek it; and the earth | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Deserveth not a sigh. But weary bitterness | 11 | ˘/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Is life, nought else, and ashes is the world. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Be now at peace. Despair | 6 | ····˘/ |
| For the last time. Unto our race did Fate | 10 | ······/··· |
| Give nought, save death. Now hold in scorn and hate | 10 | ·········· |
| Thyself and Nature and the power unknown, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘/ |
| That reigns supreme unto the grief of all, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And the vast vanity of this terrestrial ball. | 11 | ···/˘··˘/˘· |
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.