Orlando Furioso Canto 15 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCBCDD EFEFEFGG EHEHEHCC IJIKIJLL MNMNMNOO NEN N PP NNNNNNPP CPCPCPPP PCPCPCEE PNNNNNN E PQEQEQERR ENENENEEE EECECECCC ENQNQNQNN QENENENNN QNENENEQQ QNCNCNCEE QEEEEEENN QNENENENN EEEEEEENN ECECECEEE EQQQQQQCC QNQNQNQCC QCCCC| ARGUMENT | A |
| Round about Paris every where are spread | B |
| The assailing hosts of Africa and Spain | C |
| Astolpho home by Logistilla sped | B |
| Binds first Caligorantes with his chain | C |
| Next from Orrilo's trunk divides the head | B |
| With whom Sir Aquilant had warred in vain | C |
| And Gryphon bold next Sansonet discerns | D |
| Ill tidings of his lady Gryphon learns | D |
| - | |
| I | - |
| Though Conquest fruit of skill or fortune be | E |
| To conquer always is a glorious thing | F |
| 'Tis true indeed a bloody victory | E |
| Is to a chief less honour wont to bring | F |
| And that fair field is famed eternally | E |
| And he who wins it merits worshipping | F |
| Who saving from all harm his own without | G |
| Loss to his followers puts the foe to rout | G |
| - | |
| II | - |
| You sir earned worthy praise when you o'erbore | E |
| The lion of such might by sea and so | H |
| Did by him where he guarded either shore | E |
| From Francolino to the mouth of Po | H |
| That I though yet again I heard him roar | E |
| If you were present should my fear forego | H |
| How fields are fitly won was then made plain | C |
| For we were rescued and your foemen slain | C |
| - | |
| III | - |
| This was the Paynim little skilled to do | I |
| Who was but daring to his proper loss | J |
| And to the moat impelled his meiny who | I |
| One and all perished in the burning fosse | K |
| The mighty gulf had not contained the crew | I |
| But that devouring those who sought to cross | J |
| Them into dust the flame reduced that room | L |
| Might be for all within the crowded tomb | L |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| Of twenty thousand warriors thither sent | M |
| Died nineteen thousand in the fiery pit | N |
| Who to the fosse descended ill content | M |
| But so their leader willed of little wit | N |
| Extinguished amid such a blaze and spent | M |
| By the devouring flame the Christians lit | N |
| And Rodomont occasion of their woes | O |
| Exempted from the mighty mischief goes | O |
| - | |
| V | - |
| For he to the inner bank by foes possest | N |
| Across the ditch had vaulted wonderously | E |
| Had he within it been among the rest | N |
| It sure had been his last assault His eye | - |
| He turns and when the wild fires which infest | N |
| The infernal vale he sees ascend so high | - |
| And hears his people's moan and dying screams | P |
| With imprecations dread he Heaven blasphemes | P |
| - | |
| VI | - |
| This while a band King Agramant had brought | N |
| To make a fierce assault upon a gate | N |
| For while the cruel battle here was fought | N |
| Wherein so many sufferers met their fate | N |
| This haply unprovided had he thought | N |
| With fitting guard Upon the monarch wait | N |
| King Bambirago 'mid his knights of price | P |
| And Baliverso sink of every vice | P |
| - | |
| VII | - |
| And Corineus of Mulga Prusion | C |
| The wealthy monarch of the blessed isles | P |
| Malabuferzo he who fills the throne | C |
| Of Fez where a perpetual summer smiles | P |
| And other noble lords and many a one | C |
| Well armed and tried and others 'mid their files | P |
| Naked and base whose hearts in martial fields | P |
| Had found no shelter from a thousand shields | P |
| - | |
| VIII | - |
| But all things counter to the hopes ensue | P |
| Of Agramant upon his side within | C |
| In person girded by a gallant crew | P |
| Is Charlemagne with many a paladin | C |
| Ogier the Duke King Salamon the two | P |
| Guidos are seen and either Angelin | C |
| Bavaria's duke and Ganelon are here | E |
| Avino Avolio Otho and Berlinghier | E |
| - | |
| IX | P |
| And of inferior count withal a horde | N |
| Of Lombards French and Germans without end | N |
| Who every one in presence of his lord | N |
| To rank among the valiantest contend | N |
| This will I in another place record | N |
| Who here a mighty duke perforce attend | N |
| Who signs to me from far and prays that I | - |
| Will not omit him in my history | E |
| - | |
| X | P |
| 'Tis time that I should measure back my way | Q |
| Thither where I Astolpho left of yore | E |
| Who in long exile loathing more to stay | Q |
| Burnt with desire to tread his native shore | E |
| As hopes to him had given the sober fay | Q |
| Who quelled Alcina by her better lore | E |
| She with all care would send the warrior back | R |
| By the securest and the freest track | R |
| - | |
| XI | E |
| And thus by her a barque is fitted out | N |
| A better galley never ploughed the sea | E |
| And Logistilla wills for aye in doubt | N |
| Of hinderance from Alcina's treachery | E |
| That good Andronica with squadron stout | N |
| And chaste Sophrosina with him shall be | E |
| Till to the Arabian Sea beneath their care | E |
| Or to the Persian Gulf he safe repair | E |
| - | |
| XII | E |
| By Scyth and Indian she prefers the peer | E |
| Should coast and by the Nabataean reign | C |
| Content he after such a round should veer | E |
| For Persian gulf or Erithraean main | C |
| Rather than for that Boreal palace steer | E |
| Where angry winds aye vex the rude domain | C |
| So ill at seasons favoured by the sun | C |
| That there for months together light is none | C |
| - | |
| XIII | E |
| Next when she all in readiness espied | N |
| Her license to depart the prudent fay | Q |
| Accorded to the duke first fortified | N |
| With counsel as to things too long to say | Q |
| And that he might no more by charms be stayed | N |
| In place from whence he could not wend his way | Q |
| Him with a useful book and fair purveyed | N |
| And ever for her love to wear it prayed | N |
| - | |
| XIV | Q |
| How man should guard himself from magic cheats | E |
| The book instructed which the fay bestowed | N |
| At the end or the beginning where it treats | E |
| Of such an index and appendix showed | N |
| Another gift which in its goodly feats | E |
| All other gifts excelled to her he owed | N |
| This was a horn which made whatever wight | N |
| Should hear its clang betake himself to flight | N |
| - | |
| XV | Q |
| I say the horn is of such horrid sound | N |
| That wheresoe'er 'tis heard all fly for fear | E |
| Nor in the world is one of heart so sound | N |
| That would not fly should he the bugle hear | E |
| Wind thunder and the shock which rives the ground | N |
| Come not in aught the hideous clangour near | E |
| With thanks did the good Englishman receive | Q |
| The gift and of the fairy took his leave | Q |
| - | |
| XVI | Q |
| Quitting the port and smoother waves they stand | N |
| To sea with favouring wind which blows astern | C |
| And coasting round the rich and populous land | N |
| Of odoriferous Ind the vessels turn | C |
| Opening a thousand isles on either hand | N |
| Scattered about that sea till they discern | C |
| The land of Thomas here the pilot veers | E |
| His ready tiller and more northward steers | E |
| - | |
| XVII | Q |
| Astolpho furrowing that ocean hoar | E |
| Marks as he coasts the wealthy land at ease | E |
| Ganges amid the whitening waters roar | E |
| Nigh skirting now the golden Chersonese | E |
| Taprobana with Cori next and sees | E |
| The frith which chafes against its double shore | E |
| Makes distant Cochin and with favouring wind | N |
| Issues beyond the boundaries of Ind | N |
| - | |
| XVIII | Q |
| Scouring at large broad ocean with a guide | N |
| So faithful and secure the cavalier | E |
| Questions Andronica if from that side | N |
| Named from the westering sun of this our sphere | E |
| Bark which with oars or canvas stemmed the tide | N |
| On eastern sea was wonted to appear | E |
| And could a wight who loosed from Indian strand | N |
| Reach France or Britain without touching land | N |
| - | |
| XIX | E |
| Andronica to England's duke replies | E |
| 'Know that this earth is girt about with seas | E |
| And all to one another yield supplies | E |
| Whether the circling waters boil or freeze | E |
| But since the Aethiops' land before us lies | E |
| Extending southward many long degrees | E |
| Across his waters some one has supposed | N |
| A barrier here to Neptune interposed | N |
| - | |
| XX | E |
| 'Hence bark from this Levant of Ind is none | C |
| Which weighs to shape her course for Europe's shore | E |
| Nor navigates from Europe any one | C |
| Our Oriental regions to explore | E |
| Fain to retrace alike the course begun | C |
| By the mid land extending wide before | E |
| Weening its limits of such length appear | E |
| That it must join another hemisphere | E |
| - | |
| XXI | E |
| 'But in the course of circling years I view | Q |
| From farthest lands which catch the western ray | Q |
| New Argonauts put forth and Tiphys new | Q |
| Opening till now an undiscovered way | Q |
| Others I see coast Afric and pursue | Q |
| So far the negroes' burning shore that they | Q |
| Pass the far sign from whence on his return | C |
| The sun moves hither leaving Capricorn | C |
| - | |
| XXII | Q |
| 'And find the limit of this length of land | N |
| Which makes a single sea appear as two | Q |
| Who scouring in their frigates every strand | N |
| Pass Ind and Arab isles or Persian through | Q |
| Others I see who leave on either hand | N |
| The banks which stout Alcides cleft in two | Q |
| And in the manner of the circling sun | C |
| To seek new lands and new creations run | C |
| - | |
| XXIII | Q |
| 'The imperial flags and holy cross I know | C |
| Fixed on the verdant shore see some upon | C |
| The shattered barks keep guard and others go | C |
| A field by whom ne | C |
Ludovico Ariosto
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Orlando Furioso Canto 15 is a poem by Ludovico Ariosto. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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