You that thus wear a modest countenance
You that thus wear a modest countenanceWith lids weigh’d down by the heart’s heaviness,Whence come you, that among you every faceAppears the same, for its pale troubled glance?Have you beheld my lady’s face, perchance,Bow’d with the grief that Love makes full of grace?Say now, “This thing is thus;” as my heart says,Marking your grave and sorrowful advance.And if indeed you come from where she sighsAnd mourns, may it please you (for his heart’s relief)To tell how it fares with her unto himWho knows that you have wept, seeing your eyes,And is so grieved with looking on your griefThat his heart trembles and his sight grows dim.
Words in this poem
- heaviness n.
- The state or quality of being heavy in its various senses; weight; sadness; sluggishness; oppression; thickness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
You that thus wear a modest countenance 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, You that thus wear a modest countenance, in The New Life (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dante-vita-nuova/you-that-thus-wear-a-modest-countenance.html, id L14441.
Form and metre
You that thus wear a modest countenance is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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-BAAB-ACDECDE countenanceA · heaviness · faceB · glanceA · perchanceA · graceB · says · advanceA · sighsC · reliefD · himE · eyesC · griefD · dimE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You that thus wear a modest countenance | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| With lids weigh’d down by the heart’s heaviness, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Whence come you, that among you every face | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Appears the same, for its pale troubled glance? | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Have you beheld my lady’s face, perchance, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Bow’d with the grief that Love makes full of grace? | 10 | ·········· |
| Say now, “This thing is thus;” as my heart says, | 10 | ·········· |
| Marking your grave and sorrowful advance. | 10 | /˘···/˘˘˘/ |
| And if indeed you come from where she sighs | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And mourns, may it please you (for his heart’s relief) | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| To tell how it fares with her unto him | 10 | ·········· |
| Who knows that you have wept, seeing your eyes, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| And is so grieved with looking on your grief | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That his heart trembles and his sight grows dim. | 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.