Orlando Furioso Canto 10 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCBCDD BEBEBEBB FBFBGBHH IBIBIBBB IBJBJBJBB IBBBBBBKK IBLBLBLBB IKBMBKBNN IEBEBEBBB NOBOBOBPP NBBBBBBBB BQNQNQNBB NBCBCBCEE NBBBBBBCC BNRNRNRBB BSTSTSTFF BUCUCUCBB BBBBBBBBB BBBBBBBBB NNENENEBB BOPOPOPSS BEBEBEBPP BCBCBCBBB BUBV| ARGUMENT | A |
| Another love assails Bireno's breast | B |
| Who leaves one night Olympia on the shore | C |
| To Logistilla's holy realm addressed | B |
| Rogero goes nor heeds Alcina more | C |
| Him of that flying courser repossest | B |
| The hippogryph on airy voyage bore | C |
| Whence he the good Rinaldo's levy sees | D |
| And next Angelica beholds and frees | D |
| - | |
| I | - |
| Of all the loves of all fidelity | B |
| Yet proved of all the constant hearts and true | E |
| Of all the lovers in felicity | B |
| Or sorrow faithful found a famous crew | E |
| To Olympia I would give the first degree | B |
| Rather than second if this be not due | E |
| I well may say that hers no tale is told | B |
| Of truer love in present times or old | B |
| - | |
| II | - |
| And this she by so many proofs and clear | F |
| Had made apparent to the Zealand lord | B |
| No woman's faith more certain could appear | F |
| To man though he her open heart explored | B |
| And if fair truth such spirits should endear | G |
| And they in mutual love deserve reward | B |
| Bireno as himself nay he above | H |
| Himself I say should kind Olympia love | H |
| - | |
| III | - |
| Not only should he nevermore deceive | I |
| Her for another were that woman she | B |
| Who so made Europe and wide Asia grieve | I |
| Or fairer yet if one more fair there be | B |
| But rather that quit her the light should leave | I |
| And what is sweet to taste touch hear and see | B |
| And life and fame and all beside if aught | B |
| More precious can in truth be styled or thought | B |
| - | |
| IV | I |
| If her Bireno loved as she had loved | B |
| Bireno if her love he did repay | J |
| With faith like hers and still with truth unmoved | B |
| Veered not his shifting sail another way | J |
| Or ingrate for such service cruel proved | B |
| For such fair love and faith I now will say | J |
| And you with lips comprest and eye brows bent | B |
| Shall listen to the tale for wonderment | B |
| - | |
| V | I |
| And when you shall have heard the impiety | B |
| Which of such passing goodness was the meed | B |
| Woman take warning from this perfidy | B |
| And let none make a lover's word her creed | B |
| Mindless that God does all things hear and see | B |
| The lover eager his desires to speed | B |
| Heaps promises and vows aye prompt to swear | K |
| Which afterwards all winds disperse in air | K |
| - | |
| VI | I |
| The promises and empty vows dispersed | B |
| In air by winds all dissipated go | L |
| After these lovers have the greedy thirst | B |
| Appeased with which their fevered palates glow | L |
| In this example which I offer versed | B |
| Their prayers and tears to credit be more slow | L |
| Cheaply dear ladies mine is wisdom bought | B |
| By those who wit at other's cost are taught | B |
| - | |
| VII | I |
| Of those in the first flower of youth beware | K |
| Whose visage is so soft and smooth to sight | B |
| For past as soon as bred their fancies are | M |
| Like a straw fire their every appetite | B |
| So the keen hunter follows up the hare | K |
| In heat and cold on shore or mountain height | B |
| Nor when 'tis taken more esteems the prize | N |
| And only hurries after that which flies | N |
| - | |
| VIII | I |
| Such is the practise of these striplings who | E |
| What time you treat them with austerity | B |
| Love and revere you and such homage do | E |
| As those who pay their service faithfully | B |
| But vaunt no sooner victory than you | E |
| From mistresses shall servants grieve to be | B |
| And mourn to see the fickle love they owed | B |
| From you diverted and elsewhere bestowed | B |
| - | |
| IX | N |
| I not for this for that were wrong opine | O |
| That you should cease to love for you without | B |
| A lover like uncultivated vine | O |
| Would be that has no prop to wind about | B |
| But the first down I pray you to decline | O |
| To fly the volatile inconstant rout | B |
| To make your choice the riper fruits among | P |
| Nor yet to gather what too long has hung | P |
| - | |
| X | N |
| A daughter they have found above was said | B |
| Of the proud king who ruled the Friesland state | B |
| That with Bireno's brother was to wed | B |
| As far as rumour tells but to relate | B |
| The truth a longing in Bireno bred | B |
| The sight of food so passing delicate | B |
| And he to talk his palate deemed would be | B |
| For other's sake a foolish courtesy | B |
| - | |
| XI | B |
| The gentle damsel had not past fourteen | Q |
| Was beautiful and fresh and like a rose | N |
| When this first opening from its bud is seen | Q |
| And with the vernal sun expands and grows | N |
| To say Bireno loved the youthful queen | Q |
| Were little with less blaze lit tinder glows | N |
| Or ripened corn wherever envious hand | B |
| Of foe amid the grain has cast a brand | B |
| - | |
| XII | N |
| Than that which on Bireno's bosom fed | B |
| And to his marrow burned when weeping sore | C |
| The fate of her unhappy father dead | B |
| He saw her bathed in ceaseless tears deplore | C |
| And as cold water on the cauldron shed | B |
| Shops short the bubbling wave which boiled before | C |
| So was the raging rife Olympia blew | E |
| Within his breast extinguished by a new | E |
| - | |
| XIII | N |
| Nor feels Bireno mere satiety | B |
| He loathes her so he ill endures her sight | B |
| And if his hope he long deferred will die | B |
| For other such his fickle appetite | B |
| Yet till the day prefixed to satisfy | B |
| His fond desire so feigns the wary knight | B |
| Olympia less to love than to adore | C |
| He seems and but her pleasure to explore | C |
| - | |
| XIV | B |
| And if the other he too much caress | N |
| Who cannot but caress her there are none | R |
| See evil in the deed but rather guess | N |
| It is in pity is in goodness done | R |
| Since to raise up and comfort in distress | N |
| Whom Fortune's wheel beats down in changeful run | R |
| Was never blamed with glory oftener paid | B |
| So much the more a young a harmless maid | B |
| - | |
| XV | B |
| Almighty God how fallible and vain | S |
| Is human judgment dimmed by clouds obscure | T |
| Bireno's actions impious and profane | S |
| By others are reputed just and pure | T |
| Already stooping to their oars the train | S |
| Have loosed his vessel from the port secure | T |
| And with the duke and his companions steer | F |
| For Zealand through the deep with meery cheer | F |
| - | |
| XVI | B |
| Already Holland and its headlands all | U |
| Are left astern and now descried no more | C |
| Since to shun Friesland they to larboard hawl | U |
| And keep their course more nigh the Scottish shore | C |
| When they are overtaken by a squall | U |
| And drive three days the open sea before | C |
| Upon the third when now near eventide | B |
| A barren and unpeopled isle is spied | B |
| - | |
| XVII | B |
| As soon as they were harboured in a hight | B |
| Olympia landed and the board was spread | B |
| She there contented with the faithless knight | B |
| Supt unsuspecting any cause for dread | B |
| Thence with Bireno where a tent was pight | B |
| In pleasant place repaired and went to bed | B |
| The others of their train returned abroad | B |
| And rested in their ship in haven moored | B |
| - | |
| XVIII | B |
| The fear and late sea sorrow which had weighed | B |
| So long upon the dame and broke her rest | B |
| The finding herself safe in greenwood shade | B |
| Removed from noise and for her tranquil breast | B |
| Knowing her lover was beside her laid | B |
| No further thoughts no further cares molest | B |
| Olympia lap in slumber so profound | B |
| No sheltered bear or dormouse sleeps more sound | B |
| - | |
| XIX | N |
| The lover false who hatching treason lies | N |
| Stole from his bed in silence when he knew | E |
| She slept his clothes he in a bundle ties | N |
| Nor other raiment on his body threw | E |
| Then issuing forth from the pavilion hies | N |
| As if on new born wings towards his crew | E |
| Who roused unmoor without a cry as he | B |
| Commands and loosen thence and put to sea | B |
| - | |
| XX | B |
| Behind the land was left and there to pine | O |
| Olympia who yet slept the woods among | P |
| Till from her gilded wheels the frosty rhine | O |
| Aurora upon earth beneath had flung | P |
| And the old woe beside the tumbling brine | O |
| Lamenting halcyons mournful descant sung | P |
| When she 'twixt sleep and waking made a strain | S |
| To reach her loved Bireno but in vain | S |
| - | |
| XXI | B |
| She no one found the dame her arm withdrew | E |
| She tried again yet no one found she spread | B |
| Both arms now here now there and sought anew | E |
| Now either leg but yet no better sped | B |
| Fear banished sleep she oped her eyes in view | E |
| Was nothing she no more her widowed bed | B |
| Would keep but from the couch in fury sprung | P |
| And headlong forth from the pavilion flung | P |
| - | |
| XXII | B |
| And seaward ran her visage tearing sore | C |
| Presaging and now certain of her plight | B |
| She beat her bosom and her tresses tore | C |
| And looked the moon was shining if she might | B |
| Discover any thing beside the shore | C |
| Nor save the shore was any thing in sight | B |
| She calls Bireno and the caverns round | B |
| Pitying her grief Bireno's name rebound | B |
| - | |
| XXIII | B |
| On the far shore there rose a rock below | U |
| Scooped by the breaker's beating frequently | B |
| The cliff was hollowed under | V |
Ludovico Ariosto
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Previous Poem
Orlando Furioso Canto 20 Poem>>
About Orlando Furioso Canto 10
Orlando Furioso Canto 10 is a poem by Ludovico Ariosto. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about Orlando Furioso Canto 10 poem by Ludovico Ariosto
Best Poems of Ludovico Ariosto