Basil Kennet
The High Eternal, in whose works supremeThe Master's vast creative power hath spoke:At whose command each circling sphere awoke,Jove mildly rose, and Mars with fiercer beam:To earth He came, to ratify the schemeReveal'd to us through prophecy's dark cloak,To sound redemption, speak man's fallen yoke:He chose the humblest for that heavenly theme.But He conferr'd not on imperial RomeHis birth's renown; He chose a lowlier sky,--To stand, through Him, the proudest spot on earth!And now doth shine within its humble homeA star, that doth each other so outvie,That grateful nature hails its lovely birth.
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- outvie v. t.
- To exceed in vying.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Basil Kennet 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, Basil Kennet, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/basil-kennet.html, id L14466.
Form and metre
Basil Kennet 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 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: love / prove.
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 supremeA · spokeB · awokeB · beamA · schemeA · cloakB · yokeB · themeA · romeC · skyD · earthC · homeD · outvieC · birthD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The High Eternal, in whose works supreme | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| The Master's vast creative power hath spoke: | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/·· |
| At whose command each circling sphere awoke, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Jove mildly rose, and Mars with fiercer beam: | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| To earth He came, to ratify the scheme | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Reveal'd to us through prophecy's dark cloak, | 10 | ˘/···/˘˘·· |
| To sound redemption, speak man's fallen yoke: | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| He chose the humblest for that heavenly theme. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But He conferr'd not on imperial Rome | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| His birth's renown; He chose a lowlier sky,-- | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| To stand, through Him, the proudest spot on earth! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And now doth shine within its humble home | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A star, that doth each other so outvie, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That grateful nature hails its lovely birth. | 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.