Dante Alighieri: Beyond the sphere enfolding all the spheres
Beyond the sphere enfolding all the spheresPasseth the sigh that in my heart doth rise.And a new wisdom learns from Love in tears,By which he may attain unto the skies.When he hath reached the bourn of his desireOf lady throned in glory he hath sight.To whom his pilgrim spirit doth aspire,She shineth with so wonderful a light ;
On seeing her thus and telling it to me,His accents are too subtle to bear senseUnto the sorrowful heart that yearns to hear ;Yet often of my gentle one doth heHold converse, often naming Beatrice, whenceI understand full well, O ladies dear !
Words in this poem
- bourn n.
- A stream or rivulet; a burn. [OE. burne, borne, AS. burna; akin to OS. brunno spring, G. born, brunnen, OHG. prunno, Goth. brunna, Icel. brunnr, and perh. to Gr. burn, v., because the source]
- aspire v. t.
- To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dante Alighieri: Beyond the sphere enfolding all the spheres is in the public domain. This text is taken from An Anthology of Italian Poems, 13th to 19th Century, Selected & Translated by Lorna de' Lucchi, Internet Archive, the Lorna de' Lucchi 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: Various, Dante Alighieri: Beyond the sphere enfolding all the spheres, in An Anthology of Italian Poems (Selections), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/italian-anthology-de-lucchi/dante-alighieri-beyond-the-sphere-enfolding-all-the-spheres.html, id L26485.
Form and metre
Dante Alighieri: Beyond the sphere enfolding all the spheres is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABAB-C-C spheresA · riseB · tearsA · skiesB · desire · sightC · aspire · lightC
- 2 ABCABC meA · senseB · hearC · heA · whenceB · dearC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beyond the sphere enfolding all the spheres | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Passeth the sigh that in my heart doth rise. | 10 | /˘········ |
| And a new wisdom learns from Love in tears, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| By which he may attain unto the skies. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| When he hath reached the bourn of his desire | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Of lady throned in glory he hath sight. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| To whom his pilgrim spirit doth aspire, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| She shineth with so wonderful a light ; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| On seeing her thus and telling it to me, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| His accents are too subtle to bear sense | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Unto the sorrowful heart that yearns to hear ; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Yet often of my gentle one doth he | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Hold converse, often naming Beatrice, whence | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| I understand full well, O ladies dear ! | 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.