Ballata III
That fire for ever which I thought at rest,Quench'd in the chill blood of my ripen'd years,Awakes new flames and torment in my breast.Its sparks were never all, from what I see,Extinct, but merely slumbering, smoulder'd o'er;Haply this second error worse may be,For, by the tears, which I, in torrents, pour,Grief, through these eyes, distill'd from my heart's core,Which holds within itself the spark and bait,Remains not as it was, but grows more great.What fire, save mine, had not been quench'd and kill'dBeneath the flood these sad eyes ceaseless shed?Struggling 'mid opposites--so Love has will'd--Now here, now there, my vain life must be led,For in so many ways his snares are spread,When most I hope him from my heart expell'dThen most of her fair face its slave I'm held.
Words in this poem
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ballata III 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, Ballata III, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/ballata-iii.html, id L14546.
Form and metre
Ballata III is 17 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 A-AB-BCCDDEFEFFGG restA · years · breastA · seeB · o'er · beB · pourC · coreC · baitD · greatD · kill'dE · shedF · will'dE · ledF · spreadF · expell'dG · heldG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That fire for ever which I thought at rest, | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| Quench'd in the chill blood of my ripen'd years, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Awakes new flames and torment in my breast. | 10 | ˘/···/···· |
| Its sparks were never all, from what I see, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Extinct, but merely slumbering, smoulder'd o'er; | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| Haply this second error worse may be, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| For, by the tears, which I, in torrents, pour, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Grief, through these eyes, distill'd from my heart's core, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Which holds within itself the spark and bait, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Remains not as it was, but grows more great. | 10 | ˘/········ |
| What fire, save mine, had not been quench'd and kill'd | 10 | ·/········ |
| Beneath the flood these sad eyes ceaseless shed? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Struggling 'mid opposites--so Love has will'd-- | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| Now here, now there, my vain life must be led, | 10 | ·········· |
| For in so many ways his snares are spread, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When most I hope him from my heart expell'd | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Then most of her fair face its slave I'm held. | 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.