A Wasted Brand
If being near the fire I burned with it,Now that its flame is quenched and doth not show,What wonder if I waste within and glow,Dwindling away to cinders bit by bit?
While still it burned, I saw so brightly litThat splendour whence I drew my grievous woe,That from its sight alone could pleasure flow,And death and torment both seemed exquisite.
But now that heaven hath robbed me of the blazeOf that great fire which burned and nourished me,A coal that smoulders 'neath the ash am I.
Unless Love furnish wood fresh flames to raise,I shall expire with not one spark to see,So quickly into embers do I die!
Words in this poem
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- 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 Wasted Brand 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 Wasted Brand, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/a-wasted-brand.html, id L15206.
Form and metre
A Wasted Brand is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 itA · showB · glowB · bitA
- 2 ABBA litA · woeB · flowB · exquisiteA
- 3 -AA blaze · meA · iA
- 4 -AA raise · seeA · dieA
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 being near the fire I burned with it, | 10 | ·/··/˘···· |
| Now that its flame is quenched and doth not show, | 10 | ·········· |
| What wonder if I waste within and glow, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Dwindling away to cinders bit by bit? | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| While still it burned, I saw so brightly lit | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That splendour whence I drew my grievous woe, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| That from its sight alone could pleasure flow, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| And death and torment both seemed exquisite. | 10 | ···/···/˘˘ |
| But now that heaven hath robbed me of the blaze | 10 | ···/······ |
| Of that great fire which burned and nourished me, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| A coal that smoulders 'neath the ash am I. | 10 | ·········· |
| Unless Love furnish wood fresh flames to raise, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I shall expire with not one spark to see, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| So quickly into embers do I die! | 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.