Capel Lofft
With glowing virtue graced, of warm heart known,Sweet Spirit! for whom so many a page I trace,Tower in high worth which foundest well thy base!Centre of honour, perfect, and alone!O blushes! on fresh snow like roses thrown,Wherein I read myself and mend apace;O pleasures! lifting me to that fair faceBrightest of all on which the sun e'er shone.Oh! if so far its sound may reach, your nameOn my fond verse shall travel West and East,From southern Nile to Thule's utmost bound.But such full audience since I may not claim,It shall be heard in that fair land at leastWhich Apennine divides, which Alps and seas surround.
Words in this poem
- graced a.
- Endowed with grace; beautiful; full of graces; honorable.
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- apace adv.
- With a quick pace; quick; fast; speedily. [Pref. a- + pace. OE. a pas at a walk, in which a is the article. See Pace.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- apennine a.
- Of, pertaining to, or designating, the Apennines, a chain of mountains extending through Italy. [L. Apenninus, fr. Celtic pen, or ben, peak, mountain.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Capel Lofft 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, Capel Lofft, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/capel-lofft-4.html, id L14669.
Form and metre
Capel Lofft 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 84%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 21% 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 knownA · traceB · baseB · aloneA · thrownA · apaceB · faceB · shoneA · nameC · eastD · boundC · claimD · leastC · surroundD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With glowing virtue graced, of warm heart known, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Sweet Spirit! for whom so many a page I trace, | 10 | ·/···/···· |
| Tower in high worth which foundest well thy base! | 10 | /····/˘··· |
| Centre of honour, perfect, and alone! | 10 | /˘·/˘/··˘/ |
| O blushes! on fresh snow like roses thrown, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Wherein I read myself and mend apace; | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| O pleasures! lifting me to that fair face | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Brightest of all on which the sun e'er shone. | 10 | /˘········ |
| Oh! if so far its sound may reach, your name | 10 | ·········· |
| On my fond verse shall travel West and East, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| From southern Nile to Thule's utmost bound. | 9 | ·/˘···/·· |
| But such full audience since I may not claim, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| It shall be heard in that fair land at least | 10 | ·········· |
| Which Apennine divides, which Alps and seas surround. | 12 | ·/˘·˘/····˘/ |
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.