The Proem
Born of God's Wisdom and Philosophy,Keen lover of true beauty and true good,I call the vain self-traitorous multitudeBack to my mother's milk; for it is she,Faithful to God her spouse, who nourished me,Making me quick and active to intrudeWithin the inmost veil, where I have viewedAnd handled all things in eternity.If the whole world's our home where we may run,Up, friends, forsake those secondary schoolsWhich give grains, units, inches for the whole!If facts surpass mere words, melt pride of soul,And pain, and ignorance that hardens fools,Here in the fire I've stolen from the Sun!
Words in this poem
- spouse v. t.
- To wed; to espouse. [See Espouse, and Spouse, n.]
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Proem 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 Proem, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/the-proem.html, id L15220.
Form and metre
The Proem is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 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 --ABBAA-CDEEDC philosophy · good · multitudeA · sheB · meB · intrudeA · viewedA · eternity · runC · schoolsD · wholeE · soulE · foolsD · sunC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Born of God's Wisdom and Philosophy, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Keen lover of true beauty and true good, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I call the vain self-traitorous multitude | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Back to my mother's milk; for it is she, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Faithful to God her spouse, who nourished me, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Making me quick and active to intrude | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Within the inmost veil, where I have viewed | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And handled all things in eternity. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| If the whole world's our home where we may run, | 10 | ····/····· |
| Up, friends, forsake those secondary schools | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘· |
| Which give grains, units, inches for the whole! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| If facts surpass mere words, melt pride of soul, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And pain, and ignorance that hardens fools, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Here in the fire I've stolen from the Sun! | 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.