Love’s pallor and the semblance of deep ruth
Love’s pallor and the semblance of deep ruthWere never yet shown forth so perfectlyIn any lady’s face, chancing to seeGrief’s miserable countenance uncouth,As in thine, lady, they have sprung to soothe,When in mine anguish thou hast looked on me;Until sometimes it seems as if, through thee,My heart might almost wander from its truth.Yet so it is, I cannot hold mine eyesFrom gazing very often upon thineIn the sore hope to shed those tears they keep;And at such time, thou mak’st the pent tears riseEven to the brim, till the eyes waste and pine;Yet cannot they, while thou art present, weep.
Words in this poem
- pallor n.
- Paleness; want of color; pallidity; as, pallor of the complexion. Jer. Taylor. [L., fr. pallere to be or look pale. See Pale, a.]
- ruth n.
- Sorrow for the misery of another; pity; tenderness. [From Rue, v.: cf. Icel. hryggedh, hrygedh.]
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- pent p. p.
- Penned or shut up; confined; -- often with up. [From Pen, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love’s pallor and the semblance of deep ruth 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’s pallor and the semblance of deep ruth, in The New Life (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dante-vita-nuova/love-s-pallor-and-the-semblance-of-deep-ruth.html, id L27056.
Form and metre
Love’s pallor and the semblance of deep ruth is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 A-BA-BBACDECDE ruthA · perfectly · seeB · uncouthA · soothe · meB · theeB · truthA · eyesC · thineD · keepE · riseC · pineD · weepE
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’s pallor and the semblance of deep ruth | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Were never yet shown forth so perfectly | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| In any lady’s face, chancing to see | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Grief’s miserable countenance uncouth, | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/˘˘// |
| As in thine, lady, they have sprung to soothe, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When in mine anguish thou hast looked on me; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Until sometimes it seems as if, through thee, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| My heart might almost wander from its truth. | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Yet so it is, I cannot hold mine eyes | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| From gazing very often upon thine | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| In the sore hope to shed those tears they keep; | 10 | ·········· |
| And at such time, thou mak’st the pent tears rise | 10 | ·········· |
| Even to the brim, till the eyes waste and pine; | 10 | /········· |
| Yet cannot they, while thou art present, weep. | 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.