Sonnet XXXI
I am older than Nature and her TimeBy all the timeless age of Consciousness,And my adult oblivion of the climeWhere I was born makes me not countryless.Ay, and dim through my daylight thoughts escapeYearnings for that land where my childhood dreamed,Which I cannot recall in colour or shapeBut haunts my hours like something that hath gleamedAnd yet is not as light remembered,Nor to the left or to the right conceived;And all round me tastes as if life were deadAnd the world made but to be disbelieved.Thus I my hope on unknown truth lay; yetHow but by hope do I the unknown truth get?
Words in this poem
- timeless a.
- Done at an improper time; unseasonable; untimely.
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- yearnings n.
- The maws, or stomachs, of young calves, used a rennet for curdling milk. [Cf. AS. geirnan, geyrnan, to rum. See 4th Earn.]
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXXI 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 XXXI, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-xxxi.html, id L23660.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXXI 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 76%).
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 timeA · consciousnessB · climeA · countrylessB · escapeC · dreamedD · shapeC · gleamedD · rememberedE · conceivedF · deadE · disbelievedF · yetG · getG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I am older than Nature and her Time | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| By all the timeless age of Consciousness, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And my adult oblivion of the clime | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Where I was born makes me not countryless. | 10 | ·········· |
| Ay, and dim through my daylight thoughts escape | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| Yearnings for that land where my childhood dreamed, | 10 | /˘·····/·· |
| Which I cannot recall in colour or shape | 11 | ··˘/˘/·/˘·· |
| But haunts my hours like something that hath gleamed | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| And yet is not as light remembered, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Nor to the left or to the right conceived; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And all round me tastes as if life were dead | 10 | ·········· |
| And the world made but to be disbelieved. | 10 | ·······˘˘/ |
| Thus I my hope on unknown truth lay; yet | 10 | ·····˘/··· |
| How but by hope do I the unknown truth get? | 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.