Orlando Furioso Canto 18 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCBCCC DCDCDCBB EBEBEBCC CFCGCFCC HCHCHCCC C C C CC IFIJIJ BCBCBCCC CCCCCCKK BCCCCCCBB BFIIIIIKK BICICICKK B C C CKK BKHKHKHBB LCLCLCCC MKMKMK BIBIBIKK BKKKBKCC BCBCBCCC BKIKIKICC BBCBCBCCC BCBCBCBBB BCBCBK| ARGUMENT | A |
| Gryphon is venged Sir Mandricardo goes | B |
| In search of Argier's king Charles wins the fight | C |
| Marphisa Norandino's men o'erthrows | B |
| Due pains Martano's cowardice requite | C |
| A favouring wind Marphisa's gallery blows | B |
| For France with Gryphon bound and many a knight | C |
| The field Medoro and Cloridano tread | C |
| And find their monarch Dardinello dead | C |
| - | |
| I | - |
| High minded lord your actions evermore | D |
| I have with reason lauded and still laud | C |
| Though I with style inapt and rustic lore | D |
| You of large portion of your praise defraud | C |
| But of your many virtues one before | D |
| All others I with heart and tongue applaud | C |
| That if each man a gracious audience finds | B |
| No easy faith your equal judgment blinds | B |
| - | |
| II | - |
| Often to shield the absent one from blame | E |
| I hear you this or other thing adduce | B |
| Or him you let at least an audience claim | E |
| Where still one ear is open to excuse | B |
| And before dooming men to scaith and shame | E |
| To see and hear them ever is your use | B |
| And ere you judge another many a day | C |
| And month and year your sentence to delay | C |
| - | |
| III | - |
| Had Norandine been with your care endued | C |
| What he by Gryphon did he had not done | F |
| Profit and fame have from your rule accrued | C |
| A stain more black than pitch he cast upon | G |
| His name through him his people were pursued | C |
| And put to death by Olivero's son | F |
| Who at ten cuts or thrusts in fury made | C |
| Some thirty dead about the waggon laid | C |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| Whither fear drives in rout the others all | H |
| Some scattered here some there on every side | C |
| Fill road and field to gain the city wall | H |
| Some strive and smothered in the mighty tide | C |
| One on another in the gateway fall | H |
| Gryphon all thought of pity laid aside | C |
| Threats not nor speaks but whirls his sword about | C |
| Well venging on the crowd their every flout | C |
| - | |
| V | - |
| Of those who to the portal foremost fleed | C |
| The readiest of the crowd their feet to ply | - |
| Part more intent upon their proper need | C |
| Than their friends' peril raise the draw bridge high | - |
| Part weeping and with deathlike visage speed | C |
| Nor turn their eyes behind them as they fly | - |
| While through the ample city outcry loud | C |
| And noise and tumult rises from the crowd | C |
| - | |
| VI | - |
| Two nimble Gryphon seizes mid the train | I |
| When to their woe the bridge is raised of one | F |
| Upon the field the warrior strews the brain | I |
| Which he bears out on a hard grinding stone | J |
| Seized by the breast the other of the twain | I |
| Over the city wall by him is thrown | J |
| Fear chills the townsmen's marrow when they spy | - |
| The luckless wretch descending from the sky | - |
| - | |
| VII | - |
| Many there were who feared in their alarms | B |
| Lest o'er the wall Sir Gryphon would have vaulted | C |
| Nor greater panic seized upon those swarms | B |
| Than if the soldan had the town assaulted | C |
| The sound of running up and down of arms | B |
| Of cry of Muezzins on high exalted | C |
| Of drums and trumpets heaven 'twould seem rebounded | C |
| And that the world was by the noise confounded | C |
| - | |
| VIII | - |
| But I will to another time delay | C |
| What chanced on this occasion to recount | C |
| 'Tis meet I follow Charles upon his way | C |
| Hurrying in search of furious Rodomont | C |
| Who did the monarch's suffering people slay | C |
| I said with him the danger to affront | C |
| Went Namus Oliver the Danish peer | K |
| Avino Avolio Otho and Berlinghier | K |
| - | |
| IX | B |
| Eight lances' shock that eight such warriors guide | C |
| Which all at once against the king they rest | C |
| Endured the stout and scaly serpent's hide | C |
| In which the cruel Moor his limbs had drest | C |
| As a barque rights itself the sheet untied | C |
| Which held its sail by growing wind opprest | C |
| So speedily Sir Rodomont arose | B |
| Though a hill had been uprooted by the blows | B |
| - | |
| X | B |
| Rainier and Guido Richard Salomon | F |
| Ivan Ughetto Turpin and the twain | I |
| Angiolin Angelier false Ganellon | I |
| And Mark and Matthew from St Michael's plain | I |
| With the eight of whom I spake all set upon | I |
| The foe with Edward and Sir Arimane | I |
| Who leading succours from the English shore | K |
| Had lodged them in the town short time before | K |
| - | |
| XI | B |
| Not so well keyed into the solid stone | I |
| Groans upon Alpine height the castle good | C |
| When by rude Boreas' rage or Eurus' strown | I |
| Uptorn are ash and fir in mountain wood | C |
| As groans Sir Rodomont with pride o'erblown | I |
| Inflamed with anger and with thirst of blood | C |
| And as the thunder and the lightning's fire | K |
| Fly coupled such his vengeance and his ire | K |
| - | |
| XII | B |
| He at his head took aim who stood most nigh | - |
| Ughetto was the miserable wight | C |
| Whom to the teeth he clove and left to die | - |
| Though of good temper was his helmet bright | C |
| As well the others many strokes let fly | - |
| At him himself which all the warrior smite | C |
| But harm so hard the dragon's hide no more | K |
| Than needle can the solid anvil score | K |
| - | |
| XIII | B |
| All the defences round abandoned are | K |
| The unpeopled city is abandoned all | H |
| For where the danger is the greater there | K |
| The many give their aid at Charles' call | H |
| Through every street they hurry to the square | K |
| Since flying nought avails from work and wall | H |
| Their bosoms so the monarch's presence warms | B |
| That each again takes courage each takes arms | B |
| - | |
| XIV | - |
| As when within the closely fastened cage | L |
| Of an old lioness well used to fight | C |
| An untamed bull is prisoned to engage | L |
| The savage monster for the mob's delight | C |
| The cubs who see him cresting in his rage | L |
| And round the den loud bellowing to the sight | C |
| Of the huge beast's enormous horns unused | C |
| Cower at a distance timid and confused | C |
| - | |
| XV | - |
| But if the mother spring at him and hang | M |
| Fixing her cruel tusks into his ear | K |
| Her whelps as well will blood their greedy fang | M |
| And bold in her defence assail the steer | K |
| One bites his paunch and one his back so sprang | M |
| That band upon the paynim cavalier | K |
| From roof and window and from place more nigh | - |
| Poured in a ceaseless shower the weapons fly | - |
| - | |
| XVI | - |
| Of cavaliers and footmen such the squeeze | B |
| That hardly can the place the press contain | I |
| They cluster there as thick as swarming bees | B |
| Who thither from each passage troop amain | I |
| So that were they unarmed and with more ease | B |
| Than stalks or turnips he could cleave the train | I |
| Ill Rodomont in twenty days would clear | K |
| The gathering crowd united far and near | K |
| - | |
| XVII | - |
| Unknowing how himself from thence to free | B |
| The paynim by this game is angered sore | K |
| Who little thins the gathering rabblery | K |
| Staining the ground with thousands slain or more | K |
| And all the while in his extremity | B |
| Finds that his breath comes thicker than before | K |
| And sees he cannot pierce the hostile round | C |
| Unless he thence escape while strong and sound | C |
| - | |
| XVIII | - |
| The monarch rolls about his horrid eyes | B |
| And sees that foes all outlets barricade | C |
| But at the cost of countless enemies | B |
| A path shall quickly by his hand be made | C |
| Where Fury calls him lo the felon hies | B |
| And brandishes on high his trenchant blade | C |
| To assail the newly entered British band | C |
| Which Edward and Sir Ariman command | C |
| - | |
| XIX | B |
| He who has seen the fence in well thonged square | K |
| Against whose stakes the eddying crowd is born | I |
| By wild bull broken that has had to bear | K |
| Through the long day dogs blows and ceaseless scorn | I |
| Who hunts the scattered people here and there | K |
| And this or that now hoists upon his horn | I |
| Let him as such or fiercer yet account | C |
| When he breaks forth the cruel Rodomont | C |
| - | |
| XX | B |
| At one cross blow fifteen or twenty foes | B |
| He hews as many leaves without a bead | C |
| At cross or downright stroke as if he rows | B |
| Trashes in vineyard or in willow bed | C |
| At last all smeared with blood the paynim goes | B |
| Safe from the place which he has heaped with dead | C |
| And wheresoe'er he turns his steps are left | C |
| Heads arms and other members maimed and cleft | C |
| - | |
| XXI | B |
| He from the square retires in such a mode | C |
| None can perceive that danger him appals | B |
| But during this what were the safest road | C |
| By which to sally he to thought recals | B |
| He comes at last to where the river flowed | C |
| Below the isle and past without the walls | B |
| In daring men at arms and mob increase | B |
| Who press him sore nor let him part in peace | B |
| - | |
| XXII | B |
| As the high couraged beast whom hunters start | C |
| In the wild Nomade or Massilian chace | B |
| Who even in flying shows his noble heart | C |
| And threatening seeks his lair with sluggish pace | B |
| From that strange wood of sword and spear | K |
Ludovico Ariosto
(1)
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Orlando Furioso Canto 18 is a poem by Ludovico Ariosto. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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