The Dungeon
As to the centre all things that have weightSink from the surface: as the silly mouseRuns at a venture, rash though timorous,Into the monster's jaws to meet her fate:Thus all who love high Science, from the straitDead sea of Sophistry sailing like usInto Truth's ocean, bold and amorous,Must in our haven anchor soon or late.One calls this haunt a Cave of Polypheme,And one Atlante's Palace, one of CreteThe Labyrinth, and one Hell's lowest pit.Knowledge, grace, mercy, are an idle dreamIn this dread place. Nought but fear dwells in it,Of stealthy Tyranny the sacred seat.
Words in this poem
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- sophistry n.
- The art or process of reasoning; logic. [OE. sophistrie, OF. sophisterie.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dungeon 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, The Dungeon, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/the-dungeon.html, id L15264.
Form and metre
The Dungeon is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECED. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% 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 ABBAABBACDECED weightA · mouseB · timorousB · fateA · straitA · usB · amorousB · lateA · polyphemeC · creteD · pitE · dreamC · itE · seatD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As to the centre all things that have weight | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sink from the surface: as the silly mouse | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Runs at a venture, rash though timorous, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Into the monster's jaws to meet her fate: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thus all who love high Science, from the strait | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Dead sea of Sophistry sailing like us | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| Into Truth's ocean, bold and amorous, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Must in our haven anchor soon or late. | 10 | ··//˘/˘··· |
| One calls this haunt a Cave of Polypheme, | 10 | ·········· |
| And one Atlante's Palace, one of Crete | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| The Labyrinth, and one Hell's lowest pit. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Knowledge, grace, mercy, are an idle dream | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| In this dread place. Nought but fear dwells in it, | 10 | ·········· |
| Of stealthy Tyranny the sacred seat. | 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.