Poem VII
"Transmissa raptim praeda cassos dentiumeludit ictus incruentam transvolansinpune linguam, ne retentam mordicusoffam molares dissecarent uvidi,os omne transit et palatum praeterit.
Ternis dierum ac noctium processibusmansit ferino devoratus gutture,errabat illic per latebras viscerum,ventris recessus circumibat tortilesanhelus extis intus aestuantibus."
"Who this is we must learn, for Man he seemsIn all his lineaments, though in his faceThe glimpses of his Father's glory shine."
Words in this poem
- ictus n.
- The stress of voice laid upon accented syllable of a word. Cf. [L., fr. icere, ictum, to strike.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem VII is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Hymns of Prudentius, Project Gutenberg ebook #14959; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Prudentius, Poem VII, in The Hymns of Prudentius (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14959, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/prudentius-hymns/poem-vii.html, id L23694.
Form and metre
Poem VII is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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.
- 2 A---A processibusA · gutture · viscerum · tortiles · aestuantibusA
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Transmissa raptim praeda cassos dentium | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| eludit ictus incruentam transvolans | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| inpune linguam, ne retentam mordicus | 11 | ··········· |
| offam molares dissecarent uvidi, | 11 | ··········· |
| os omne transit et palatum praeterit. | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Ternis dierum ac noctium processibus | 12 | ····//······ |
| mansit ferino devoratus gutture, | 11 | ··········· |
| errabat illic per latebras viscerum, | 12 | ············ |
| ventris recessus circumibat tortiles | 11 | ··········· |
| anhelus extis intus aestuantibus." | 11 | ··········· |
| "Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems | 10 | ·········· |
| In all his lineaments, though in his face | 10 | ·········· |
| The glimpses of his Father's glory shine." | 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.