Sonnet XXI
Thought was born blind, but Thought knows what is seeing.Its careful touch, deciphering forms from shapes,Still suggests form as aught whose proper beingMere finding touch with erring darkness drapes.Yet whence, except from guessed sight, does touch teachThat touch is but a close and empty sense?How does mere touch, self-uncontented, reachFor some truer sense’s whole intelligence?The thing once touched, if touch be now omitted,Stands yet in memory real and outward known,So the untouching memory of touch is fittedWith sense of a sense whereby far things are shownSo, by touch of untouching, wrongly aright,Touch’ thought of seeing sees not things but Sight.
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXI 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 XXI, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-xxi.html, id L23650.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXI 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 82%).
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 seeingA · shapesB · beingA · drapesB · teachC · senseD · reachC · intelligenceD · omittedE · knownF · fittedE · shownF · arightG · sightG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thought was born blind, but Thought knows what is seeing. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Its careful touch, deciphering forms from shapes, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Still suggests form as aught whose proper being | 11 | ·˘/····/˘/˘ |
| Mere finding touch with erring darkness drapes. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Yet whence, except from guessed sight, does touch teach | 10 | ·········· |
| That touch is but a close and empty sense? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| How does mere touch, self-uncontented, reach | 10 | ·········· |
| For some truer sense’s whole intelligence? | 11 | ··/˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| The thing once touched, if touch be now omitted, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Stands yet in memory real and outward known, | 10 | ···/˘˘··/· |
| So the untouching memory of touch is fitted | 12 | ·····/˘···/˘ |
| With sense of a sense whereby far things are shown | 11 | ··········· |
| So, by touch of untouching, wrongly aright, | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
| Touch’ thought of seeing sees not things but Sight. | 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.