Light and Darkness
He who ordained, when first the world began,Time, that was not before creation's hour,Divided it, and gave the sun's high powerTo rule the one, the moon the other span:Thence fate and changeful chance and fortune's banDid in one moment down on mortals shower:To me they portioned darkness for a dower;Dark hath my lot been since I was a man.Myself am ever mine own counterfeit;And as deep night grows still more dim and dun,So still of more misdoing must I rue:Meanwhile this solace to my soul is sweet,That my black night doth make more clear the sunWhich at your birth was given to wait on you.
Words in this poem
- changeful a.
- Full of change; mutable; inconstant; fickle; uncertain.
- misdoing n.
- A wrong done; a fault or crime; an offense; as, it was my misdoing.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Light and Darkness 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, Light and Darkness, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/light-and-darkness.html, id L15183.
Form and metre
Light and Darkness is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 ABBAAB-A-CD-CD beganA · hourB · powerB · spanA · banA · showerB · dower · manA · counterfeit · dunC · rueD · sweet · sunC · youD
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 ordained, when first the world began, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Time, that was not before creation's hour, | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| Divided it, and gave the sun's high power | 11 | ˘/˘······/˘ |
| To rule the one, the moon the other span: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thence fate and changeful chance and fortune's ban | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Did in one moment down on mortals shower: | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| To me they portioned darkness for a dower; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Dark hath my lot been since I was a man. | 10 | ·········· |
| Myself am ever mine own counterfeit; | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| And as deep night grows still more dim and dun, | 10 | ·········· |
| So still of more misdoing must I rue: | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Meanwhile this solace to my soul is sweet, | 10 | /··/˘····· |
| That my black night doth make more clear the sun | 10 | ·········· |
| Which at your birth was given to wait on you. | 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.