Sonnet V
How can I think, or edge my thoughts to action,When the miserly press of each day’s needAches to a narrowness of spilled distractionMy soul appalled at the world’s work’s time-greed?How can I pause my thoughts upon the taskMy soul was born to think that it must doWhen every moment has a thought to askTo fit the immediate craving of its cue?The coin I’d heap for marrying my MuseAnd build our home i’th’ greater Time-to-beBecomes dissolved by needs of each day’s useAnd I feel beggared of infinity,Like a true-Christian sinner, each day flesh-drivenBy his own act to forfeit his wished heaven.
Words in this poem
- miserly a.
- Like a miser; very covetous; sordid; niggardly. [From Miser.]
- distraction n.
- The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. [L. distractio: cf. F. distraction.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- sinner n.
- One who has sinned; especially, one who has sinned without repenting; hence, a persistent and incorrigible transgressor; one condemned by the law of God.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet V is in the public domain. This text is taken from 35 Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #19978; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Fernando Pessoa, Sonnet V, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-v.html, id L23634.
Form and metre
Sonnet V is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG actionA · needB · distractionA · greedB · taskC · doD · askC · cueD · museE · beF · useE · infinityF · drivenG · heavenG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How can I think, or edge my thoughts to action, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| When the miserly press of each day’s need | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| Aches to a narrowness of spilled distraction | 11 | ···/˘˘··˘/˘ |
| My soul appalled at the world’s work’s time-greed? | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| How can I pause my thoughts upon the task | 10 | ·········· |
| My soul was born to think that it must do | 10 | ·········· |
| When every moment has a thought to ask | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| To fit the immediate craving of its cue? | 11 | ···˘/˘/˘··· |
| The coin I’d heap for marrying my Muse | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And build our home i’th’ greater Time-to-be | 10 | ··/··/˘··· |
| Becomes dissolved by needs of each day’s use | 10 | ˘/˘/······ |
| And I feel beggared of infinity, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Like a true-Christian sinner, each day flesh-driven | 11 | ···/˘/˘···/ |
| By his own act to forfeit his wished heaven. | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
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.