My lady carries love within her eyes
My lady carries love within her eyes;All that she looks on is made pleasanter;Upon her path men turn to gaze at her;He whom she greeteth feels his heart to rise,And droops his troubled visage, full of sighs,And of his evil heart is then aware:Hate loves, and pride becomes a worshipper.O women, help to praise her in somewise.Humbleness, and the hope that hopeth well,By speech of hers into the mind are brought,And who beholds is blessèd oftenwhiles.The look she hath when she a little smilesCannot be said, nor holden in the thought;’Tis such a new and gracious miracle.
Words in this poem
- visage n.
- The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
- humbleness n.
- The quality of being humble; humility; meekness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My lady carries love within her eyes 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, My lady carries love within her eyes, in The New Life (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dante-vita-nuova/my-lady-carries-love-within-her-eyes.html, id L27046.
Form and metre
My lady carries love within her eyes is 14 lines in a single stanza. 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 A--AA--A-BCCB- eyesA · pleasanter · her · riseA · sighsA · aware · worshipper · somewiseA · well · broughtB · oftenwhilesC · smilesC · thoughtB · miracle
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My lady carries love within her eyes; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| All that she looks on is made pleasanter; | 10 | ·········· |
| Upon her path men turn to gaze at her; | 10 | ·········· |
| He whom she greeteth feels his heart to rise, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And droops his troubled visage, full of sighs, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And of his evil heart is then aware: | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Hate loves, and pride becomes a worshipper. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| O women, help to praise her in somewise. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Humbleness, and the hope that hopeth well, | 10 | /˘˘······· |
| By speech of hers into the mind are brought, | 10 | ·········· |
| And who beholds is blessèd oftenwhiles. | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| The look she hath when she a little smiles | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Cannot be said, nor holden in the thought; | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| ’Tis such a new and gracious miracle. | 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.