Sonnet XXIX
My weary life, that lives unsatisfiedOn the foiled off-brink of being e’er but this,To whom the power to will hath been deniedAnd the will to renounce doth also miss;My sated life, with having nothing sated,In the motion of moving poisèd aye,Within its dreams from its own dreams abated—This life let the Gods change or take away.For this endless succession of empty hours,Like deserts after deserts, voidly one,Doth undermine the very dreaming powersAnd dull even thought’s active inaction,Tainting with fore-unwilled will the dreamed actTwice thus removed from the unobtained fact.
About this text
Sonnet XXIX 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 XXIX, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-xxix.html, id L23658.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXIX 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 81%).
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 unsatisfiedA · thisB · deniedA · missB · satedC · ayeD · abatedC · awayD · hoursE · oneF · powersE · inactionF · actG · factG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My weary life, that lives unsatisfied | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| On the foiled off-brink of being e’er but this, | 10 | ······/··· |
| To whom the power to will hath been denied | 10 | ···/····˘/ |
| And the will to renounce doth also miss; | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| My sated life, with having nothing sated, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| In the motion of moving poisèd aye, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| Within its dreams from its own dreams abated— | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| This life let the Gods change or take away. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For this endless succession of empty hours, | 11 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘/ |
| Like deserts after deserts, voidly one, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Doth undermine the very dreaming powers | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| And dull even thought’s active inaction, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| Tainting with fore-unwilled will the dreamed act | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| Twice thus removed from the unobtained fact. | 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.