Love's Justification
Sometimes my love I dare to entertainWith soaring hope not over-credulous;Since if all human loves were impious,Unto what end did God the world ordain?For loving thee what license is more plainThan that I praise thereby the gloriousSource of all joys divine, that comfort usIn thee, and with chaste fires our soul sustain?False hope belongs unto that love aloneWhich with declining beauty wanes and dies,And, like the face it worships, fades away.That hope is true which the pure heart hath known,Which alters not with time or death's decay,Yielding on earth earnest of Paradise.
It must be right sometimes to entertainChaste love with hope not over-credulous;Since if all human loves were impious,Unto what end did God the world ordain?If I love thee and bend beneath thy reign,'Tis for the sake of beauty gloriousWhich in thine eyes divine is stored for us,And drives all evil thought from its domain.That is not love whose tyranny we ownIn loveliness that every moment dies;Which, like the face it worships, fades away:True love is that which the pure heart hath known,Which alters not with time or death's decay,Yielding on earth earnest of Paradise.
Words in this poem
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Justification 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 Justification, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/love-s-justification.html, id L15202.
Form and metre
Love's Justification is 28 lines in 2 stanzas of 14 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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 A-BAABBAC-DCD- entertainA · credulous · impiousB · ordainA · plainA · gloriousB · usB · sustainA · aloneC · dies · awayD · knownC · decayD · paradise
- 2 A-BAABBAC-DCD- entertainA · credulous · impiousB · ordainA · reignA · gloriousB · usB · domainA · ownC · dies · awayD · knownC · decayD · paradise
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sometimes my love I dare to entertain | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| With soaring hope not over-credulous; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Since if all human loves were impious, | 10 | ···/˘··˘/˘ |
| Unto what end did God the world ordain? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For loving thee what license is more plain | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Than that I praise thereby the glorious | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Source of all joys divine, that comfort us | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| In thee, and with chaste fires our soul sustain? | 10 | ·····//·˘/ |
| False hope belongs unto that love alone | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Which with declining beauty wanes and dies, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| And, like the face it worships, fades away. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That hope is true which the pure heart hath known, | 10 | ·········· |
| Which alters not with time or death's decay, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Yielding on earth earnest of Paradise. | 10 | /˘··/˘·/˘· |
| It must be right sometimes to entertain | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Chaste love with hope not over-credulous; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Since if all human loves were impious, | 10 | ···/˘··˘/˘ |
| Unto what end did God the world ordain? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| If I love thee and bend beneath thy reign, | 10 | ·········· |
| 'Tis for the sake of beauty glorious | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Which in thine eyes divine is stored for us, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And drives all evil thought from its domain. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| That is not love whose tyranny we own | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| In loveliness that every moment dies; | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| Which, like the face it worships, fades away: | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| True love is that which the pure heart hath known, | 10 | ·········· |
| Which alters not with time or death's decay, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Yielding on earth earnest of Paradise. | 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.