Love's Paradoxes
Far off with fire I feel a cold face lit,That makes me burn, the while itself doth freeze:Two fragile arms enchain me, which with ease,Unmoved themselves, can move weights infinite.A soul none knows but I, most exquisite,That, deathless, deals me death, my spirit sees:I meet with one who, free, my heart doth seize:And who alone can cheer, hath tortured it.How can it be that from one face like thineMy own should feel effects so contrary,Since ill comes not from things devoid of ill?That loveliness perchance doth make me pine,Even as the sun, whose fiery beams we see,Inflames the world, while he is temperate still.
Words in this poem
- enchain v. t.
- To bind with a chain; to hold in chains. [F. enchaîner; pref. en- (L. in) chaîne chain. See Chain, and cf. Incatenation.]
- unmoved a.
- Not moved; fixed; firm; unshaken; calm; apathetic.
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- 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 Paradoxes 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 Paradoxes, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/love-s-paradoxes.html, id L15177.
Form and metre
Love's Paradoxes 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 10.0 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 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-DC-D litA · freezeB · easeB · infiniteA · exquisiteA · seesB · seizeB · itA · thineC · contrary · illD · pineC · see · stillD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Far off with fire I feel a cold face lit, | 10 | ···/······ |
| That makes me burn, the while itself doth freeze: | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Two fragile arms enchain me, which with ease, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Unmoved themselves, can move weights infinite. | 10 | ˘/˘/···/˘˘ |
| A soul none knows but I, most exquisite, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| That, deathless, deals me death, my spirit sees: | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| I meet with one who, free, my heart doth seize: | 10 | ·········· |
| And who alone can cheer, hath tortured it. | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| How can it be that from one face like thine | 10 | ·········· |
| My own should feel effects so contrary, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| Since ill comes not from things devoid of ill? | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| That loveliness perchance doth make me pine, | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/···· |
| Even as the sun, whose fiery beams we see, | 10 | /····/˘··· |
| Inflames the world, while he is temperate still. | 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.