Love and the gentle heart are one same thing
Love and the gentle heart are one same thing,Even as the wise man[20] in his ditty saith:Each, of itself, would be such life in deathAs rational soul bereft of reasoning.’Tis Nature makes them when she loves: a kingLove is, whose palace where he sojournethIs called the Heart; there draws he quiet breathAt first, with brief or longer slumbering.Then beauty seen in virtuous womankindWill make the eyes desire, and through the heartSend the desiring of the eyes again;Where often it abides so long enshrin’dThat Love at length out of his sleep will start.And women feel the same for worthy men.
Words in this poem
- ditty n.
- A saying or utterance; especially, one that is short and frequently repeated; a theme. [OE. dite, OF. ditié, fr. L. dictatum, p. p. neut. of dictare to say often, dictate, compose. See Dictate, v. t.]
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- virtuous a.
- Possessing or exhibiting virtue. Specifically: -- (a) Exhibiting manly courage and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [OE. vertuous, OF. vertuos, vertuous, F. vertueux, fr. L. Virtuous. See Virtue, and cf. Virtuoso.]
- womankind n.
- The females of the human race; women, collectively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love and the gentle heart are one same thing 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, Love and the gentle heart are one same thing, in The New Life (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dante-vita-nuova/love-and-the-gentle-heart-are-one-same-thing.html, id L27045.
Form and metre
Love and the gentle heart are one same thing is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE thingA · saithB · deathB · reasoningA · kingA · sojournethB · breathB · slumberingA · womankindC · heartD · againE · enshrin'dC · startD · menE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love and the gentle heart are one same thing, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Even as the wise man[20] in his ditty saith: | 10 | /······/˘· |
| Each, of itself, would be such life in death | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| As rational soul bereft of reasoning. | 11 | ·/˘˘·˘/·/˘˘ |
| ’Tis Nature makes them when she loves: a king | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Love is, whose palace where he sojourneth | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Is called the Heart; there draws he quiet breath | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| At first, with brief or longer slumbering. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Then beauty seen in virtuous womankind | 11 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Will make the eyes desire, and through the heart | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Send the desiring of the eyes again; | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Where often it abides so long enshrin’d | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| That Love at length out of his sleep will start. | 10 | ·········· |
| And women feel the same for worthy men. | 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.