A Prayer to Nature (Second Reading)
If only that thy beauties here may beDeathless through Time that rends the wreaths he twined,I trust that Nature will collect and bindAll those delights the slow years steal from thee,And keep them for a birth more happilyBorn under better auspices, refinedInto a heavenly form of nobler mind,And dowered with all thine angel purity.Ah me! and may heaven also keep my sighs,My scattered tears preserve and reunite,And give to him who loves that fair again!More happy he perchance shall move those eyesTo mercy by the griefs my manhood blight,Nor lose the kindness that from me is ta'en!
Words in this poem
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- happily adv.
- By chance; peradventure; haply. Piers Plowman. [From Happy.]
- dowered p. a.
- Furnished with, or as with, dower or a marriage portion.
- reunite v. t.
- To unite again; to join after separation or variance.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prayer to Nature (Second Reading) is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds 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: Michelangelo Buonarroti, A Prayer to Nature (Second Reading), in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/a-prayer-to-nature-second-reading.html, id L18603.
Form and metre
A Prayer to Nature (Second Reading) is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABBA-BB-CD-CD- beA · twinedB · bindB · theeA · happily · refinedB · mindB · purity · sighsC · reuniteD · again · eyesC · blightD · ta'en
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If only that thy beauties here may be | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Deathless through Time that rends the wreaths he twined, | 10 | /˘········ |
| I trust that Nature will collect and bind | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| All those delights the slow years steal from thee, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And keep them for a birth more happily | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Born under better auspices, refined | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Into a heavenly form of nobler mind, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And dowered with all thine angel purity. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Ah me! and may heaven also keep my sighs, | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| My scattered tears preserve and reunite, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| And give to him who loves that fair again! | 10 | ········˘/ |
| More happy he perchance shall move those eyes | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| To mercy by the griefs my manhood blight, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Nor lose the kindness that from me is ta'en! | 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.