The Modern Cupid
Through full three thousand years the world reveresBlind Love that bears the quiver and hath wings:Now too he's deaf, and to the sufferingsOf folk in anguish turns impiteous ears.Of gold he's greedy, and dark raiment wears;A child no more, that naked sports and sings,But a sly greybeard; no gold shaft he flings,Now that fire-arms have cursed these latter years.Charcoal and sulphur, thunder, lead, and smoke,That leave the flesh with plagues of hell diseased,And drive the craving spirit deaf and blind,These are his weapons. But my bell hath brokeHer silence. Yield, thou deaf, blind, tainted beast,To the wise fervour of a blameless mind!
Words in this poem
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- impiteous a.
- Pitiless; cruel.
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- fervour n.
- Heat; excessive warmth. [OF. fervor, fervour, F. ferveur, L. fervor, fr. fervere. See Fervent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Modern Cupid 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, The Modern Cupid, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/the-modern-cupid.html, id L15241.
Form and metre
The Modern Cupid is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends 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 ABBA-BBAC-DC-D reveresA · wingsB · sufferingsB · earsA · wears · singsB · flingsB · yearsA · smokeC · diseased · blindD · brokeC · beast · mindD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Through full three thousand years the world reveres | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Blind Love that bears the quiver and hath wings: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Now too he's deaf, and to the sufferings | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Of folk in anguish turns impiteous ears. | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘· |
| Of gold he's greedy, and dark raiment wears; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A child no more, that naked sports and sings, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But a sly greybeard; no gold shaft he flings, | 10 | ·········· |
| Now that fire-arms have cursed these latter years. | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Charcoal and sulphur, thunder, lead, and smoke, | 10 | /··/˘/˘··· |
| That leave the flesh with plagues of hell diseased, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And drive the craving spirit deaf and blind, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| These are his weapons. But my bell hath broke | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Her silence. Yield, thou deaf, blind, tainted beast, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| To the wise fervour of a blameless mind! | 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.