Chaucer
If 'tis not love, what is it feel I then?If 'tis, how strange a thing, sweet powers above!If love be kind, why does it fatal prove?If cruel, why so pleasing is the pain?If 'tis my will to love, why weep, why plain?If not my will, tears cannot love remove.O living death! O rapturous pang!--why, love!If I consent not, canst thou o'er me reign?If I consent, 'tis wrongfully I mourn:Thus on a stormy sea my bark is borneBy adverse winds, and with rough tempest tost;Thus unenlightened, lost in error's maze,My blind opinion ever dubious strays;I'm froze by summer, scorched by winter's frost.
Words in this poem
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
- dubious a.
- Doubtful or not settled in opinion; being in doubt; wavering or fluctuating; undetermined. [L. dubius, dubiosus, fr. duo two. See Two, and cf. Doubt.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chaucer 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, Chaucer, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/chaucer.html, id L14649.
Form and metre
Chaucer 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 87%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% 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 thenA · aboveB · proveB · painA · plainA · removeB · loveB · reignA · mournC · borneD · tostC · mazeD · straysC · frostD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If 'tis not love, what is it feel I then? | 10 | ·········· |
| If 'tis, how strange a thing, sweet powers above! | 10 | ·······/·· |
| If love be kind, why does it fatal prove? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| If cruel, why so pleasing is the pain? | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| If 'tis my will to love, why weep, why plain? | 10 | ·········· |
| If not my will, tears cannot love remove. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| O living death! O rapturous pang!--why, love! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| If I consent not, canst thou o'er me reign? | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| If I consent, 'tis wrongfully I mourn: | 10 | ··˘/·/˘˘·· |
| Thus on a stormy sea my bark is borne | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| By adverse winds, and with rough tempest tost; | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| Thus unenlightened, lost in error's maze, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| My blind opinion ever dubious strays; | 10 | ··˘/˘//˘˘· |
| I'm froze by summer, scorched by winter's frost. | 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.