Conscious of His Folly, He Prays God to Turn Him to a Better Life
Father of heaven! after the days misspent,After the nights of wild tumultuous thought,In that fierce passion's strong entanglement,One, for my peace too lovely fair, had wrought;Vouchsafe that, by thy grace, my spirit bentOn nobler aims, to holier ways be brought;That so my foe, spreading with dark intentHis mortal snares, be foil'd, and held at nought.E'en now th' eleventh year its course fulfils,That I have bow'd me to the tyrannyRelentless most to fealty most tried.Have mercy, Lord! on my unworthy ills:Fix all my thoughts in contemplation high;How on the cross this day a Saviour died.
Words in this poem
- vouchsafe v. t.
- To condescend to grant; to concede; to bestow. [Vouch + safe, that is, to vouch or answer for safety.]
- relentless a.
- Unmoved by appeals for sympathy or forgiveness; insensible to the distresses of others; destitute of tenderness; unrelenting; unyielding; unpitying; as, a prey to relentless despotism.
- saviour n.
- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. [OE. saveour, OF. salveor, F. sauveur, fr. L. salvator to save. See Save, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Conscious of His Folly, He Prays God to Turn Him to a Better Life 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, Conscious of His Folly, He Prays God to Turn Him to a Better Life, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/conscious-of-his-folly-he-prays-god-to-turn-him-to-a-better-.html, id L14557.
Form and metre
Conscious of His Folly, He Prays God to Turn Him to a Better Life 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 88%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 misspentA · thoughtB · entanglementB · wroughtA · bentA · broughtB · intentB · noughtA · fulfilsC · tyrannyD · triedC · illsD · highC · diedD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Father of heaven! after the days misspent, | 10 | /˘·/····˘/ |
| After the nights of wild tumultuous thought, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In that fierce passion's strong entanglement, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| One, for my peace too lovely fair, had wrought; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Vouchsafe that, by thy grace, my spirit bent | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| On nobler aims, to holier ways be brought; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That so my foe, spreading with dark intent | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| His mortal snares, be foil'd, and held at nought. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| E'en now th' eleventh year its course fulfils, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| That I have bow'd me to the tyranny | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Relentless most to fealty most tried. | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Have mercy, Lord! on my unworthy ills: | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Fix all my thoughts in contemplation high; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| How on the cross this day a Saviour died. | 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.