F. Petrarca
If far from turbid thoughts and gloomy moodSome smiling day should see my wish fulfilledWhere breathe the vales with gentle brooks enrilledThe soft air of my Tuscan neighbourhood,There, where is heard no more the garrulous broodOf thoughtless minds, in deep oblivion stilled,Would I to thee my heart's pure altar buildIn the green blackness of the tangled wood.
There with the dying splendours of the sunThy song should glow amid the flowers springingOn breezy banks where whispering streams do run;As if, still sweeter sounds and odours flingingUpward to heaven when the day is done,A nightingale from bough to bough were singing.
Words in this poem
- garrulous a.
- Talking much, especially about commonplace or trivial things; talkative; loquacious. [L. garrulus, fr. garrire to chatter, talk; cf. Gr. Call.]
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- breezy a.
- Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
F. Petrarca is in the public domain. This text is taken from By Frank Sewall (London: Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893), Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, the Frank Sewall translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Giosuè Carducci, F. Petrarca, in Poems of Giosuè Carducci (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56711, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carducci-poems/f-petrarca.html, id L26532.
Form and metre
F. Petrarca is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBCABBC moodA · fulfilledB · enrilledB · neighbourhoodC · broodA · stilledB · buildB · woodC
- 2 ABABAB sunA · springingB · runA · flingingB · doneA · singingB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If far from turbid thoughts and gloomy mood | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Some smiling day should see my wish fulfilled | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Where breathe the vales with gentle brooks enrilled | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The soft air of my Tuscan neighbourhood, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| There, where is heard no more the garrulous brood | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of thoughtless minds, in deep oblivion stilled, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Would I to thee my heart's pure altar build | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In the green blackness of the tangled wood. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| There with the dying splendours of the sun | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Thy song should glow amid the flowers springing | 11 | ····˘/·/˘/˘ |
| On breezy banks where whispering streams do run; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| As if, still sweeter sounds and odours flinging | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Upward to heaven when the day is done, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| A nightingale from bough to bough were singing. | 11 | ·/˘˘·····/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.