Note 196 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
There are passages of pure cantilena in this poem, where sense is absolutely swallowed up in sound, and words become the mere vehicle for rhythmic melody. Of this verbal music the dirge of the nymphs for Adonis and the threnos of Venus afford excellent examples (xix. pp. 358-361). Note especially the stanza beginning:
Adone, Adone, o bell'Adon, tu giaci, Nè senti i miei sospir, nè miri il pianto! O bell'Adone, o caro Adon, tu taci, Nè rispondi a colei che amasti tanto!
There is nothing more similar to this in literature than Fra Jacopone's delirium of mystic love:
Amor amor Jesu, son giunto a porto; Amor amor Jesu, tu m'hai menato; Amor amor Jesu, dammi conforto; Amor amor Jesu, si m'hai enfiamato.
Only the one is written in a Mixo-Lydian, the other in a Hyper-Phrygian mood.