Conscience
All crime is its own torment, bearing woeTo mind or body or decrease of fame;If not at once, still step by step our nameOr blood or friends or fortune it brings low.But if our will do not resent the blow,We have not sinned. That penance hath no blameWhich Magdalen found sweet: purging our shame,Self-punishment is virtue, all men know.The consciousness of goodness pure and wholeMakes a man fully blest; but miserySprings from false conscience, blinded in its pride.This Simon Peter meant when he repliedTo Simon Magus, that the prescient soulHath her own proof of immortality.
Words in this poem
- resent v. t.
- To be sensible of; to feel; as: (a) In a good sense, to take well; to receive with satisfaction. [F. ressentir; L. pref. re- re- + sentire to feel. See Sense.]
- magdalen n.
- A reformed prostitute. [From Mary Magdalene, traditionally reported to have been the repentant sinner forgiven by Christ. See Luke vii. 36.]
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
- prescient a.
- Having knowledge of coming events; foreseeing; conscious beforehand. [L. praesciens, -entis, p. pr. of praescire to foreknow; prae before + scire to know: cf. F. prescient. See Science.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Conscience 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, Conscience, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/conscience.html, id L15244.
Form and metre
Conscience is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 89% 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. 50% 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 ABBAABBAC-DDC- woeA · fameB · nameB · lowA · blowA · blameB · shameB · knowA · wholeC · misery · prideD · repliedD · soulC · immortality
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 |
|---|---|---|
| All crime is its own torment, bearing woe | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| To mind or body or decrease of fame; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| If not at once, still step by step our name | 10 | ········/· |
| Or blood or friends or fortune it brings low. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But if our will do not resent the blow, | 10 | ··/···˘/·· |
| We have not sinned. That penance hath no blame | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which Magdalen found sweet: purging our shame, | 10 | ·/˘˘··/˘/· |
| Self-punishment is virtue, all men know. | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| The consciousness of goodness pure and whole | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Makes a man fully blest; but misery | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Springs from false conscience, blinded in its pride. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| This Simon Peter meant when he replied | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| To Simon Magus, that the prescient soul | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Hath her own proof of immortality. | 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.