The Silkworm
Kind to the world, but to itself unkind,A worm is born, that dying noiselesslyDespoils itself to clothe fair limbs, and beIn its true worth by death alone divined.Oh, would that I might die, for her to findRaiment in my outworn mortality!That, changing like the snake, I might be freeTo cast the slough wherein I dwell confined!Nay, were it mine, that shaggy fleece that stays,Woven and wrought into a vestment fair,Around her beauteous bosom in such bliss!All through the day she'd clasp me! Would I wereThe shoes that bear her burden! When the waysWere wet with rain, her feet I then should kiss!
Words in this poem
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Silkworm 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 Silkworm, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/the-silkworm.html, id L15163.
Form and metre
The Silkworm is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 90% 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. 43% 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-BAA-BAC-D-CD unkindA · noiselessly · beB · divinedA · findA · mortality · freeB · confinedA · staysC · fair · blissD · were · waysC · kissD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kind to the world, but to itself unkind, | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| A worm is born, that dying noiselessly | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Despoils itself to clothe fair limbs, and be | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| In its true worth by death alone divined. | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| Oh, would that I might die, for her to find | 10 | ·········· |
| Raiment in my outworn mortality! | 10 | /˘····˘/˘˘ |
| That, changing like the snake, I might be free | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To cast the slough wherein I dwell confined! | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Nay, were it mine, that shaggy fleece that stays, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Woven and wrought into a vestment fair, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Around her beauteous bosom in such bliss! | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘··· |
| All through the day she'd clasp me! Would I were | 10 | ·········· |
| The shoes that bear her burden! When the ways | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Were wet with rain, her feet I then should kiss! | 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.