Sonnet XIX
Beauty and love let no one separate,Whom exact Nature did to each other fit,Giving to Beauty love as finishing fateAnd to Love beauty as true colour of it.Let he but friend be who the soul finds fair,But let none love outside the body’s thought,So the seen couple’s togetherness shall bearTruth to the beauty each in the other sought.I could but love thee out of mockeryOf love and thee and mine own ugliness;Therefore thy beauty I sing and wish not thee,Thanking the Gods I long not out of place,Lest, like a slave that for kings’ robes doth long,Obtained, shall with mere wearing do them wrong.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- ugliness n.
- The quality or state of being ugly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XIX 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 XIX, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-xix.html, id L23648.
Form and metre
Sonnet XIX 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 74%).
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 separateA · fitB · fateA · itB · fairC · thoughtD · bearC · soughtD · mockeryE · uglinessF · theeE · placeF · longG · wrongG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beauty and love let no one separate, | 10 | /˘·····/˘˘ |
| Whom exact Nature did to each other fit, | 11 | ·˘//˘···/˘· |
| Giving to Beauty love as finishing fate | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| And to Love beauty as true colour of it. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| Let he but friend be who the soul finds fair, | 10 | ·········· |
| But let none love outside the body’s thought, | 10 | ····//·/˘· |
| So the seen couple’s togetherness shall bear | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| Truth to the beauty each in the other sought. | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| I could but love thee out of mockery | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Of love and thee and mine own ugliness; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Therefore thy beauty I sing and wish not thee, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Thanking the Gods I long not out of place, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Lest, like a slave that for kings’ robes doth long, | 10 | ·········· |
| Obtained, shall with mere wearing do them wrong. | 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.