Flesh and Spirit
Well may these eyes of mine both near and farBehold the beams that from thy beauty flow;But, lady, feet must halt where sight may go:We see, but cannot climb to clasp a star.The pure ethereal soul surmounts that barOf flesh, and soars to where thy splendours glow,Free through the eyes; while prisoned here below,Though fired with fervent love, our bodies are.Clogged with mortality and wingless, weCannot pursue an angel in her flight:Only to gaze exhausts our utmost might.Yet, if but heaven like earth incline to thee,Let my whole body be one eye to see,That not one part of me may miss thy sight!
Words in this poem
- fervent a.
- Hot; glowing; boiling; burning; as, a fervent summer. [F. fervent, L. fervens, -entis. p.pr. of fervere o the boiling hot, to boil, glow.]
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Flesh and Spirit 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, Flesh and Spirit, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/flesh-and-spirit.html, id L15165.
Form and metre
Flesh and Spirit is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDDCCD farA · flowB · goB · starA · barA · glowB · belowB · areA · weC · flightD · mightD · theeC · seeC · sightD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Well may these eyes of mine both near and far | 10 | ·········· |
| Behold the beams that from thy beauty flow; | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| But, lady, feet must halt where sight may go: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| We see, but cannot climb to clasp a star. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The pure ethereal soul surmounts that bar | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Of flesh, and soars to where thy splendours glow, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Free through the eyes; while prisoned here below, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Though fired with fervent love, our bodies are. | 10 | ·/·/˘·//˘· |
| Clogged with mortality and wingless, we | 10 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Cannot pursue an angel in her flight: | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘··· |
| Only to gaze exhausts our utmost might. | 10 | /˘··˘///·· |
| Yet, if but heaven like earth incline to thee, | 10 | ···/··˘/·· |
| Let my whole body be one eye to see, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That not one part of me may miss thy sight! | 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.