Sophists
'Behold, I am a Sophist!' no man saith.But the true sons of perfidy refinedForge theologic lies the soul to blind,Calling themselves evangels of the faith.Aretine with his scoundrels blew his breath,And in the cynic orgies boldly joined;His ribald jests had flowers and thorns combined--A frank fair list including life and death,For fun, not fraud. It shames him to be foundLess vile than those who cannot bear to seeTheir sink of filth laid open to the ground:Wherefore they shut our mouths, our books impound,Garble with lies each sentence that may beCited to prove their foul hypocrisy.
Words in this poem
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- perfidy n.
- The act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust reposed; faithlessness; teachery. [L. perfidia, fr. L. perfidus faithless; per (cf. Skr. para away) + fides faith: cf. F. perfidie. See Faith.]
- cynic a.
- Having the qualities of a surly dog; snarling; captious; currish. [L. cynicus of the sect of Cynics, fr. Gr. Hound.]
- boldly adv.
- In a bold manner. [AS. bealdlice.]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- garble v. t.
- To sift or bolt, to separate the fine or valuable parts of from the coarse and useless parts, or from dros or dirt; as, to garble spices. [Formerly, to pick out, sort, OF. grabeler, for garbeler to examine precisely, garble spices, fr. LL. garbellare to sift; cf. Sp. garbillar to sift, garbillo a c]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sophists is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds 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: Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sophists, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/sophists.html, id L15253.
Form and metre
Sophists is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 ABBAC-BCDEDDE- saithA · refinedB · blindB · faithA · breathC · joined · combinedB · deathC · foundD · seeE · groundD · impoundD · beE · hypocrisy
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Behold, I am a Sophist!' no man saith. | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| But the true sons of perfidy refined | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| Forge theologic lies the soul to blind, | 9 | ········· |
| Calling themselves evangels of the faith. | 10 | /˘˘/······ |
| Aretine with his scoundrels blew his breath, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And in the cynic orgies boldly joined; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| His ribald jests had flowers and thorns combined-- | 10 | ·/˘··/··˘/ |
| A frank fair list including life and death, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| For fun, not fraud. It shames him to be found | 10 | ·········· |
| Less vile than those who cannot bear to see | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Their sink of filth laid open to the ground: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Wherefore they shut our mouths, our books impound, | 10 | /˘··/·/·˘/ |
| Garble with lies each sentence that may be | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Cited to prove their foul hypocrisy. | 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.