Sonnets
Whether we write or speak or do but lookWe are ever unapparent. What we areCannot be transfused into word or book.Our soul from us is infinitely far.However much we give our thoughts the willTo be our soul and gesture it abroad,Our hearts are incommunicable still.In what we show ourselves we are ignored.The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridgedBy any skill of thought or trick of seeming.Unto our very selves we are abridgedWhen we would utter to our thought our being.We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,And each to each other dreams of others’ dreams.
Words in this poem
- incommunicable a.
- Not communicable; incapable of being communicated, shared, told, or imparted, to others. [L. incommunicabilis: cf. F. incommunicable. See In- not, and Communicable.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnets 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, Sonnets, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnets.html, id L23630.
Form and metre
Sonnets is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
See other English sonnets, other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 lookA · areB · bookA · farB · willC · abroadD · stillC · ignoredD · bridgedE · seemingF · abridgedE · beingF · gleamsG · dreamsG
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Whether we write or speak or do but look | 10 | ·········· |
| We are ever unapparent. What we are | 10 | ··/······· |
| Cannot be transfused into word or book. | 10 | /˘·˘/····· |
| Our soul from us is infinitely far. | 10 | /····/˘˘˘· |
| However much we give our thoughts the will | 10 | ·/˘···/··· |
| To be our soul and gesture it abroad, | 10 | ··/··/˘·˘/ |
| Our hearts are incommunicable still. | 10 | /········· |
| In what we show ourselves we are ignored. | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged | 11 | ·˘/····˘/·· |
| By any skill of thought or trick of seeming. | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Unto our very selves we are abridged | 10 | ··//˘···˘/ |
| When we would utter to our thought our being. | 11 | ···/˘·/·//˘ |
| We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams, | 10 | ··/··˘/··· |
| And each to each other dreams of others’ dreams. | 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.