After Fifteen Years Her Eyes Are More Powerful than at First
No hope of respite, of escape no way,Her bright eyes wage such constant havoc here;Alas! excess of tyranny, I fear,My doting heart, which ne'er has truce, will slay:Fain would I flee, but ah! their amorous ray,Which day and night on memory rises clear,Shines with such power, in this the fifteenth year,They dazzle more than in love's early day.So wide and far their images are spreadThat wheresoe'er I turn I alway seeHer, or some sister-light on hers that fed.Springs such a wood from one fair laurel tree,That my old foe, with admirable skill,Amid its boughs misleads me at his will.
Words in this poem
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- havoc n.
- Wide and general destruction; devastation; waste. [W. hafog devastation, havoc; or, if this be itself fr. E. havoc, cf. OE. havot, or AS. hafoc hawk, which is a cruel or rapacious bird, or F. hai, voux! a cry to]
- doting a.
- That dotes; silly; excessively fond.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- dazzle v. t.
- To overpower with light; to confuse the sight of by brilliance of light. [Freq. of daze.]
- admirable a.
- Fitted to excite wonder; wonderful; marvelous. [L. admirabilis: cf. F. admirable.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After Fifteen Years Her Eyes Are More Powerful than at First is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Petrarch, After Fifteen Years Her Eyes Are More Powerful than at First, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/after-fifteen-years-her-eyes-are-more-powerful-than-at-first.html, id L14617.
Form and metre
After Fifteen Years Her Eyes Are More Powerful than at First is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian 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 ABBAABBACDCDCD wayA · hereB · fearB · slayA · rayA · clearB · yearB · dayA · spreadC · seeD · fedC · treeD · skillC · willD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No hope of respite, of escape no way, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Her bright eyes wage such constant havoc here; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Alas! excess of tyranny, I fear, | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘˘·· |
| My doting heart, which ne'er has truce, will slay: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Fain would I flee, but ah! their amorous ray, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Which day and night on memory rises clear, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Shines with such power, in this the fifteenth year, | 10 | ···/···˘/· |
| They dazzle more than in love's early day. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| So wide and far their images are spread | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| That wheresoe'er I turn I alway see | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Her, or some sister-light on hers that fed. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Springs such a wood from one fair laurel tree, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That my old foe, with admirable skill, | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘· |
| Amid its boughs misleads me at his will. | 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.