In Love's Own Time
Had I but earlier known that from the eyesOf that bright soul that fires me like the sun,I might have drawn new strength my race to run,Burning as burns the phoenix ere it dies;Even as the stag or lynx or leopard fliesTo seek his pleasure and his pain to shun,Each word, each smile of her would I have won,Flying where now sad age all flight denies.Yet why complain? For even now I findIn that glad angel's face, so full of rest,Health and content, heart's ease and peace of mindPerchance I might have been less simply blest,Finding her sooner: if 'tis age aloneThat lets me soar with her to seek God's throne.
About this text
In Love's Own Time 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, In Love's Own Time, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/in-love-s-own-time.html, id L15192.
Form and metre
In Love's Own Time is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 ABBAABBACDCDEE eyesA · sunB · runB · diesA · fliesA · shunB · wonB · deniesA · findC · restD · mindC · blestD · aloneE · throneE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Had I but earlier known that from the eyes | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of that bright soul that fires me like the sun, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| I might have drawn new strength my race to run, | 10 | ·········· |
| Burning as burns the phoenix ere it dies; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Even as the stag or lynx or leopard flies | 10 | /······/˘· |
| To seek his pleasure and his pain to shun, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Each word, each smile of her would I have won, | 10 | ·········· |
| Flying where now sad age all flight denies. | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Yet why complain? For even now I find | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| In that glad angel's face, so full of rest, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Health and content, heart's ease and peace of mind | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Perchance I might have been less simply blest, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Finding her sooner: if 'tis age alone | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| That lets me soar with her to seek God's throne. | 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.