Beauty and the Artist
A heart of flaming sulphur, flesh of tow,Bones of dry wood, a soul without a guideTo curb the fiery will, the ruffling prideOf fierce desires that from the passions flow;A sightless mind that weak and lame doth goMid snares and pitfalls scattered far and wide;--What wonder if the first chance brand appliedTo fuel massed like this should make it glow?Add beauteous art, which, brought with us from heaven,Will conquer nature;--so divine a powerBelongs to him who strives with every nerve.If I was made for art, from childhood givenA prey for burning beauty to devour,I blame the mistress I was born to serve.
Words in this poem
- sightless a.
- Wanting sight; without sight; blind.
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beauty and the Artist 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, Beauty and the Artist, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/beauty-and-the-artist.html, id L15160.
Form and metre
Beauty and the Artist is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 ABBAABBA-CD-CD towA · guideB · prideB · flowA · goA · wideB · appliedB · glowA · heaven · powerC · nerveD · given · devourC · serveD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A heart of flaming sulphur, flesh of tow, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Bones of dry wood, a soul without a guide | 10 | ·········· |
| To curb the fiery will, the ruffling pride | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of fierce desires that from the passions flow; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| A sightless mind that weak and lame doth go | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Mid snares and pitfalls scattered far and wide;-- | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| What wonder if the first chance brand applied | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| To fuel massed like this should make it glow? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Add beauteous art, which, brought with us from heaven, | 11 | ·/˘˘······/ |
| Will conquer nature;--so divine a power | 11 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Belongs to him who strives with every nerve. | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| If I was made for art, from childhood given | 11 | ·······/·/˘ |
| A prey for burning beauty to devour, | 11 | ···/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| I blame the mistress I was born to serve. | 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.