Love's Expostulation
If love be chaste, if virtue conquer ill,If fortune bind both lovers in one bond,If either at the other's grief despond,If both be governed by one life, one will;If in two bodies one soul triumph still,Raising the twain from earth to heaven beyond,If Love with one blow and one golden wandHave power both smitten breasts to pierce and thrill;If each the other love, himself forgoing,With such delight, such savour, and so well,That both to one sole end their wills combine;If thousands of these thoughts, all thought outgoing,Fail the least part of their firm love to tell:Say, can mere angry spite this knot untwine?
Words in this poem
- despond v. i.
- To give up, the will, courage, or spirit; to be thoroughly disheartened; to lose all courage; to become dispirited or depressed; to take an unhopeful view. [L. despond, desponsum, to promise away, promise in marriage, give up, to lose (courage); de- + spond to promise solemnly. See Sponsor.]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- savour v. t.
- To perceive by the smell or the taste; hence, to perceive; to note. B. Jonson.
- outgoing n.
- The act or the state of going out.
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- untwine v. t.
- To untwist; to separate, as that which is twined or twisted; to disentangle; to untie. [1st pref. un- + twine.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Expostulation 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, Love's Expostulation, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/love-s-expostulation.html, id L15174.
Form and metre
Love's Expostulation is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% 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. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE illA · bondB · despondB · willA · stillA · beyondB · wandB · thrillA · forgoingC · wellD · combineE · outgoingC · tellD · untwineE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If love be chaste, if virtue conquer ill, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| If fortune bind both lovers in one bond, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| If either at the other's grief despond, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| If both be governed by one life, one will; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| If in two bodies one soul triumph still, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Raising the twain from earth to heaven beyond, | 10 | /˘·····/·· |
| If Love with one blow and one golden wand | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Have power both smitten breasts to pierce and thrill; | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| If each the other love, himself forgoing, | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| With such delight, such savour, and so well, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| That both to one sole end their wills combine; | 10 | ········/˘ |
| If thousands of these thoughts, all thought outgoing, | 11 | ·/˘·····/·˘ |
| Fail the least part of their firm love to tell: | 10 | ·········· |
| Say, can mere angry spite this knot untwine? | 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.