I felt a spirit of love begin to stir
I felt a spirit of love begin to stirWithin my heart, long time unfelt till then;And saw Love coming towards me, fair and fain(That I scarce knew him for his joyful cheer),Saying, “Be now indeed my worshipper!”And in his speech he laugh’d and laugh’d again.Then, while it was his pleasure to remain,I chanced to look the way he had drawn near,And saw the Ladies Joan and BeatriceApproach me, this the other following,One and a second marvel instantly.And even as now my memory speaketh this,Love spake it then: “The first is christen’d Spring;The second Love, she is so like to me.”
Words in this poem
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I felt a spirit of love begin to stir is in the public domain. This text is taken from The New Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, the Dante Gabriel Rossetti 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: Dante Alighieri, I felt a spirit of love begin to stir, in The New Life (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dante-vita-nuova/i-felt-a-spirit-of-love-begin-to-stir.html, id L27048.
Form and metre
I felt a spirit of love begin to stir is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 -ABC-ABCDE-DE- stir · thenA · fainB · cheerC · worshipper · againA · remainB · nearC · beatriceD · followingE · instantly · thisD · springE · me
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I felt a spirit of love begin to stir | 10 | ···/··˘/·· |
| Within my heart, long time unfelt till then; | 10 | ·········· |
| And saw Love coming towards me, fair and fain | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| (That I scarce knew him for his joyful cheer), | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Saying, “Be now indeed my worshipper!” | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| And in his speech he laugh’d and laugh’d again. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Then, while it was his pleasure to remain, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| I chanced to look the way he had drawn near, | 10 | ·········· |
| And saw the Ladies Joan and Beatrice | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Approach me, this the other following, | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘˘ |
| One and a second marvel instantly. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| And even as now my memory speaketh this, | 10 | ·/···/˘/˘· |
| Love spake it then: “The first is christen’d Spring; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The second Love, she is so like to me.” | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.