Oxford Communist Corresponding Society, 21 November 2019
| x x or x x |
x x | x x | x x | x x or x x x |
A shepherd, unhappy in love, looks at the trees in winter and sees in them a reflection of his own emotional state (Edmund Spenser, 1579):
You na|ked trees, | whose sha|dy leaves | are lost,
Wherein | the birds | were wont | to build | their bower,
And now | are cloth’d | with moss | and hoa|ry frost,
Instead | of blooms, | wherewith | your buds | did flower:
5 I see | your tears, | that from | your boughs | do rain,
Whose drops | in drea|ry i|cicles | remain.
| x x x or x x |
x x x or x x |
x x x or x x |
x x x or x x |
x x x | x x or x x |
Queen Dido of Carthage wakes to learn that her lover Aeneas, a refugee from the fall of Troy, has abandoned her and is sailing away with his followers to found a new kingdom in Italy (Virgil, first century BC):
regi|na e specu|lis ut | primam al|bescere | lucem
vidit et | aequa|tis clas|sem pro|cedere | velis,
litora|que et vacu|os sen|sit sine | remige | portus,
terque qua|terque ma|nu pec|tus per|cussa de|corum
5 flaven|tisque ab|scissa co|mas ‘pro | Juppiter! | ibit
hic,’ ait | ‘et nos|tris in|luserit | advena | regnis?
non arma | expedi|ent to|taque ex | urbe se|quentur,
diripi|entque ra|tes ali|i na|valibus? | ite,
ferte ci|ti flam|mas, date | tela, im|pellite | remos!
10 quid loquor? | aut ubi | sum? quae | mentem in|sania | mutat?
infe|lix Di|do, nunc | te facta | impia | tangunt.’
Translated into English quantitative verse (Richard Stanyhurst, 1582):
The Queen, | when the day|light his | shining | brightness a|ffordeth,
Peeps from | lofty bea|cons and | sailing | navy be|holdeth.
The strands | and the ha|vens of | vessels | empty she | marketh.
Thrice, nay she | four sea|sons on | fair breast | mightily | bouncing
5 And her | hair out-|rooting ye|llow, ‘God | Jupiter, | O Lord,’
Quoth she, ‘Shall | he ’scape | thus? Shall a | stranger | give me the | slampam?
With such | depar|ture my | regal | seigniory | frumping?
Shall not all | our sub|jects pur|sue with | clamorous | hue-cry?
With my fleet | boat follow|ing shall | not their | navy be | burnèd?
10 On, men; a|larm; fire|brands see ye | take; sails | hoise; row ye | swiftly!
What chat I | fool? What | place me doth | hold? What | frenzy me | witcheth?
O for|lorn Di|do, now | now wraw’d | destiny | grubs thee.’