Urbino
God's grace, the cross, our troubles multiplied,Will make us meet in heaven, full well I know:Yet ere we yield our breath, on earth belowWhy need a little solace be denied?
Though seas and mountains and rough ways divideOur feet asunder, neither frost nor snowCan make the soul her ancient love forgo;Nor chains nor bonds the wings of thought have tied.
Borne by these wings with thee I dwell for aye,And weep, and of my dead Urbino talk,Who, were he living, now perchance would be,
For so 'twas planned, thy guest as well as I:Warned by his death another way I walkTo meet him where he waits to live with me.
Words in this poem
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
- forgo v. t.
- To pass by; to leave. See 1st Forego. [OE. forgan, forgon, forgoon, AS. forgan, prop., to go past, hence, to abstain from; pref. for- + gan to go; akin to G. vergehen to pass away, to transgress. See]
- 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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Urbino 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, Urbino, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/urbino.html, id L15210.
Form and metre
Urbino is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 ABBA multipliedA · knowB · belowB · deniedA
- 2 ABBA divideA · snowB · forgoB · tiedA
- 3 A-A ayeA · talk · beA
- 4 A-A iA · walk · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| God's grace, the cross, our troubles multiplied, | 10 | ····//˘/˘· |
| Will make us meet in heaven, full well I know: | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Yet ere we yield our breath, on earth below | 10 | ····/····· |
| Why need a little solace be denied? | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Though seas and mountains and rough ways divide | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Our feet asunder, neither frost nor snow | 10 | /·˘/˘/˘··· |
| Can make the soul her ancient love forgo; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Nor chains nor bonds the wings of thought have tied. | 10 | ·········· |
| Borne by these wings with thee I dwell for aye, | 10 | ·········· |
| And weep, and of my dead Urbino talk, | 10 | ·········· |
| Who, were he living, now perchance would be, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| For so 'twas planned, thy guest as well as I: | 10 | ·········· |
| Warned by his death another way I walk | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| To meet him where he waits to live with me. | 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.