Ideal Love
He who loves truly, grows in force and might;For beauty and the image of his loveExpand his spirit: whence he burns to proveAdventures high, and holds all perils light.If thus a lady's love dilate the knight,What glories and what joy all joys aboveShall not the heavenly splendour, joined by loveUnto our flesh-imprisoned soul, excite?Once freed, she would become one sphere immenseOf love, power, wisdom, filled with Deity,Elate with wonders of the eternal Sense.But we like sheep and wolves war ceaselessly:That love we never seek, that light intense,Which would exalt us to infinity.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- elate a.
- Lifted up; raised; elevated. [L. elatus elevated, fig., elated, proud (the figure, perh., being borrowed from a prancing horse); e out + latus (used as p. p. of ferre to bear), for tlatus, a]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ideal Love 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, Ideal Love, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/ideal-love.html, id L15240.
Form and metre
Ideal Love is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 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 ABBAABBAC-C-C- mightA · loveB · proveB · lightA · knightA · aboveB · loveB · exciteA · immenseC · deity · senseC · ceaselessly · intenseC · infinity
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 |
|---|---|---|
| He who loves truly, grows in force and might; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For beauty and the image of his love | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Expand his spirit: whence he burns to prove | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Adventures high, and holds all perils light. | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| If thus a lady's love dilate the knight, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| What glories and what joy all joys above | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Shall not the heavenly splendour, joined by love | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Unto our flesh-imprisoned soul, excite? | 10 | ··/·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Once freed, she would become one sphere immense | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Of love, power, wisdom, filled with Deity, | 11 | ··/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Elate with wonders of the eternal Sense. | 11 | ˘/·/˘··˘/˘· |
| But we like sheep and wolves war ceaselessly: | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| That love we never seek, that light intense, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Which would exalt us to infinity. | 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.