Stay now with me, and listen to my sighs
Stay now with me, and listen to my sighs,Ye piteous hearts, as pity bids ye do.Mark how they force their way out and press through;If they be once pent up, the whole life dies.Seeing that now indeed my weary eyesOftener refuse than I can tell to you(Even though my endless grief is ever new),To weep and let the smothered anguish rise.Also in sighing ye shall hear me callOn her whose blessèd presence doth enrichThe only home that well befitteth her:And ye shall hear a bitter scorn of allSent from the inmost of my spirit in speechThat mourns its joy and its joy’s minister.
Words in this poem
- pent p. p.
- Penned or shut up; confined; -- often with up. [From Pen, v. t.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stay now with me, and listen to my sighs 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, Stay now with me, and listen to my sighs, in The New Life (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dante-vita-nuova/stay-now-with-me-and-listen-to-my-sighs.html, id L27053.
Form and metre
Stay now with me, and listen to my sighs is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABBAABBAC--C-- sighsA · doB · throughB · diesA · eyesA · youB · newB · riseA · callC · enrich · her · allC · speech · minister
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stay now with me, and listen to my sighs, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ye piteous hearts, as pity bids ye do. | 11 | ·/˘˘··/˘··· |
| Mark how they force their way out and press through; | 10 | ·········· |
| If they be once pent up, the whole life dies. | 10 | ·········· |
| Seeing that now indeed my weary eyes | 10 | /˘··˘/·/˘· |
| Oftener refuse than I can tell to you | 10 | /˘/······· |
| (Even though my endless grief is ever new), | 10 | /··/˘··/˘· |
| To weep and let the smothered anguish rise. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Also in sighing ye shall hear me call | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| On her whose blessèd presence doth enrich | 9 | ····/˘·˘/ |
| The only home that well befitteth her: | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| And ye shall hear a bitter scorn of all | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Sent from the inmost of my spirit in speech | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| That mourns its joy and its joy’s minister. | 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.