Capel Lofft
When Alexander at the famous tombOf fierce Achilles stood, the ambitious sighBurst from his bosom--"Fortunate! on whomTh' eternal bard shower'd honours bright and high."But, ah! for so to each is fix'd his doom,This pure fair dove, whose like by mortal eyeWas never seen, what poor and scanty roomFor her great praise can my weak verse supply?Whom, worthiest Homer's line and Orpheus' song,Or his whom reverent Mantua still admires--Sole and sufficient she to wake such lyres!An adverse star, a fate here only wrong,Entrusts to one who worships her dear name,Yet haply injures by his praise her fame.
Words in this poem
- mantua n.
- A superior kind of rich silk formerly exported from Mantua in Italy. Beck (Draper's Dict.).
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
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-6.html, id L14729.
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 81%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% 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 tombA · sighB · whomB · highA · doomA · eyeB · roomB · supplyA · songC · admiresD · lyresC · wrongD · nameC · fameD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Alexander at the famous tomb | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of fierce Achilles stood, the ambitious sigh | 11 | ··˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| Burst from his bosom--"Fortunate! on whom | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Th' eternal bard shower'd honours bright and high." | 10 | ˘/˘·//˘··· |
| But, ah! for so to each is fix'd his doom, | 10 | ·········· |
| This pure fair dove, whose like by mortal eye | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Was never seen, what poor and scanty room | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| For her great praise can my weak verse supply? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Whom, worthiest Homer's line and Orpheus' song, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Or his whom reverent Mantua still admires-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Sole and sufficient she to wake such lyres! | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| An adverse star, a fate here only wrong, | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| Entrusts to one who worships her dear name, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Yet haply injures by his praise her fame. | 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.