Sonnet IX
Oh lovely gifts, by me too fatal found!Lovely and dear indeed whilst Heaven was kind;In mine immortal memory ye are joined,And sworn with her to give my dying wound;Who would have said, sweet seasons past, when crownedWith the ecstatic hope your emblems lent,That one day you would have to representDespair so dark, affliction so profound?Since in an hour ye made unpitying theftOf those Elysian dreams, do not denyTo take as well the sorrow you have left;Else, can I but suspect ye raised so highMy youthful joys, to wish that I should dieMidst mournful memories of the bliss bereft!
Words in this poem
- elysian a.
- Pertaining, or the abode of the blessed after death; hence, yielding the highest pleasures; exceedingly delightful; beatific. [L. Elysius, fr. Elysium.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet IX is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Garcilasso de la Vega, Project Gutenberg ebook #49410, the J. H. Wiffen 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: Garcilaso de la Vega, Sonnet IX, in The Works of Garcilasso de la Vega (1823), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49410, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/garcilaso-works/sonnet-ix.html, id L18712.
Form and metre
Sonnet IX is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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--AABBACDCDDC foundA · kind · joined · woundA · crownedA · lentB · representB · profoundA · theftC · denyD · leftC · highD · dieD · bereftC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh lovely gifts, by me too fatal found! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Lovely and dear indeed whilst Heaven was kind; | 10 | /˘··˘/·/·· |
| In mine immortal memory ye are joined, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| And sworn with her to give my dying wound; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who would have said, sweet seasons past, when crowned | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With the ecstatic hope your emblems lent, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| That one day you would have to represent | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Despair so dark, affliction so profound? | 10 | ˘/··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Since in an hour ye made unpitying theft | 10 | ···/······ |
| Of those Elysian dreams, do not deny | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| To take as well the sorrow you have left; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Else, can I but suspect ye raised so high | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| My youthful joys, to wish that I should die | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Midst mournful memories of the bliss bereft! | 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.