To Count Carlo Pepoli Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST ULQVWXYZTA2WB2C2D2E2 F2G2WH2I2HJ2WK2WL2C2 M2N2E2WWO2HP2Q2R2S2W T2WL XU2WP2WWWV2WW2X2WWWV Y2WE2Z2T2D2WCT2W U2A3B3E2WC3G2WWI2WW L2D3E3F3G3H3I3J3XJ2D 2WWWWG2WD3WK3P2WH3L3 WM3WWN3D2WM2WG2O3P3Q 3R3U2S3HR2T3WWWR2S2U 3V3W3W K3QWX3X3WW2Y3L3This wearisome and this distressing sleep | A |
That we call life O how dost thou support | B |
My Pepoli With what hopes feedest thou | C |
Thy heart Say in what thoughts and in what deeds | D |
Agreeable or sad dost thou invest | E |
The idleness thy ancestors bequeathed | F |
To thee a dull and heavy heritage | G |
All life indeed in every walk of life | H |
Is idleness if we may give that name | I |
To every work achieved or effort made | J |
That has no worthy aim in view or fails | K |
That aim to reach And if you idle call | L |
The busy crew that daily we behold | M |
From tranquil morn unto the dewy eve | N |
Behind the plough or tending plants and flocks | O |
Because they live simply to keep alive | P |
And life is worthless for itself alone | Q |
The honest truth you speak His nights and days | R |
The pilot spends in idleness the toil | S |
And sweat in workshops are but idleness | T |
The soldier's vigils perils of the field | U |
The eager merchant's cares are idle all | L |
Because true happiness for which alone | Q |
Our mortal nature longs and strives no man | V |
Or for himself or others e'er acquires | W |
Through toil or sweat through peril or through care | X |
Yet for this fierce desire which mortals still | Y |
From the beginning of the world have felt | Z |
But ever felt in vain for happiness | T |
By way of soothing remedy devised | A2 |
Nature in this unhappy life of ours | W |
Had manifold necessities prepared | B2 |
Not without thought or labor satisfied | C2 |
So that the days though ever sad less dull | D2 |
Might seem unto the human family | E2 |
And this desire bewildered and confused | F2 |
Might have less power to agitate the heart | G2 |
So too the various families of brutes | W |
Who have no less than we and vainly too | H2 |
Desire for happiness but they intent | I2 |
On that which is essential to their life | H |
Consume their days more pleasantly by far | J2 |
Nor chide with us the dulness of the hours | W |
But we who unto other hands commit | K2 |
The furnishing of our immediate wants | W |
Have a necessity more grave to meet | L2 |
For which no other ever can provide | C2 |
With ennui laden and with suffering | M2 |
The stern necessity of killing time | N2 |
That cruel obstinate necessity | E2 |
From which nor hoarded gold nor wealth of flocks | W |
Nor fertile fields nor sumptuous palaces | W |
Nor purple robes the race of man can save | O2 |
And if one scorning such a barren life | H |
And hating to behold the light of day | P2 |
Turns not a homicidal hand upon | Q2 |
Himself anticipating sluggish Fate | R2 |
For the sharp sting of unappeased desire | S2 |
That vainly calls for happiness he seeks | W |
In desperate chase on every side in vain | T2 |
A thousand inefficient remedies | W |
In lieu of that which Nature gives to all | L |
- | |
One to his dress devotes himself and hair | X |
His gait and gesture and the learned lore | U2 |
Of horses carriages to crowded halls | W |
To thronged piazzas and to gardens gay | P2 |
Another gives his nights and days to games | W |
And feasts and dances with the reigning belles | W |
A smile perpetual is on his lips | W |
But in his breast alas stern and severe | V2 |
Like adamantine column motionless | W |
Eternal ennui sits against whose might | W2 |
Avail not vigorous youth nor prattle fond | X2 |
That falls from rosy lips nor tender glance | W |
That trembles in two dark and lustrous eyes | W |
The most bewildering of mortal things | W |
Most precious gift of heaven unto man | V |
- | |
Another as if hoping to escape | Y2 |
Sad destiny in changing lands and climes | W |
His days consuming wandering o'er sea | E2 |
And hills the whole earth traverses each spot | Z2 |
That Nature in her infinite domain | T2 |
To restless man hath made accessible | D2 |
He visits in his wanderings Alas | W |
Black care is seated on the lofty prow | C |
Beneath each clime each sky he asks in vain | T2 |
For happiness sadness still lives and reigns | W |
- | |
Another in the cruel deeds of war | U2 |
Prefers to pass his hours and dips his hand | A3 |
For his diversion in his brother's blood | B3 |
Another in his neighbor's misery | E2 |
His comfort finds and artfully contrives | W |
To kill the time in making others sad | C3 |
This man still walks in wisdom's ways or art | G2 |
Pursues that tramples on the people's rights | W |
At home abroad the ancient rest disturbs | W |
Of distant shores on fraudful gain intent | I2 |
With cruel war or sharp diplomacy | W |
And so his destined part of life consumes | W |
- | |
Thee a more gentle wish a care more sweet | L2 |
Leads and controls still in the flower of youth | D3 |
In the fair April of thy days to most | E3 |
A time so pleasant heaven's choicest gift | F3 |
But heavy bitter wearisome to him | G3 |
Who has no country Thee the love of song | H3 |
Impels and of portraying in thy speech | I3 |
The beauty that so seldom in the world | J3 |
Appears and fades so soon and that more rare | X |
Which fond imagination kinder far | J2 |
Than Nature or than heaven so bounteously | D2 |
For our entranced deluded souls provides | W |
Oh fortunate a thousand fold is he | W |
Who loses not his fancy's freshness as | W |
The years roll by whom envious Fate permits | W |
To keep eternal sunshine in his heart | G2 |
Who in his ripe and his declining years | W |
As was his custom in his glorious youth | D3 |
In his deep thought enhances Nature's charms | W |
Gives life to death and to the desert bloom | K3 |
May heaven this fortune give to thee and may | P2 |
The spark that now so warms thy breast make thee | W |
In thy old age a votary of song | H3 |
I feel no more the sweet illusions of | L3 |
That happy time those charming images | W |
Have faded from my eyes that I so loved | M3 |
And which unto my latest hour will be | W |
Remembered still with hopeless sighs and tears | W |
And when this breast to all things has become | N3 |
Insensible and cold nor the sweet smile | D2 |
And rest profound of lonely sun lit plains | W |
Nor cheerful morning song of birds in spring | M2 |
Nor moonlight soft that rests on hills and fields | W |
Beneath the limpid sky will move my heart | G2 |
When every beauty both of Nature and | O3 |
Of Art to me will be inanimate | P3 |
And mute each tender feeling lofty thought | Q3 |
Unknown and strange my only comfort then | R3 |
Poor beggar must I find in studies more | U2 |
Severe to them thenceforward must devote | S3 |
The wretched remnant of unhappy life | H |
The bitter truth must I investigate | R2 |
The destinies mysterious alike | T3 |
Of mortal and immortal things | W |
For what was suffering humanity | W |
Bowed down beneath the weight of misery | W |
Created to what final goal are Fate | R2 |
And Nature urging it to whom can our | S2 |
Great sorrow any pleasure profit give | U3 |
Beneath what laws and orders to what end | V3 |
The mighty Universe revolves the theme | W3 |
Of wise men's praise to me a mystery | W |
- | |
I in these speculations will consume | K3 |
My idleness because the truth when known | Q |
Though sad has yet its charms And if at times | W |
The truth discussing my opinions should | X3 |
Unwelcome be or not be understood | X3 |
I shall not grieve indeed because in me | W |
The love of fame will be extinguished quite | W2 |
Of fame that idol frivolous and blind | Y3 |
More blind by far than Fortune or than Love | L3 |
Count Giacomo Leopardi
(1)
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