Dialogue of the Poet with His Heart
P. What actions fire thee, and what musings fill?Soul! is it peace, or truce, or war eterne?H. Our lot I know not, but, as I discern,Her bright eyes favour not our cherish'd ill.P. What profit, with those eyes if she at willMakes us in summer freeze, in winter burn?H. From him, not her those orbs their movement learn.P. What's he to us, she sees it and is still.H. Sometimes, though mute the tongue, the heart lamentsFondly, and, though the face be calm and bright,Bleeds inly, where no eye beholds its grief.P. Nathless the mind not thus itself contents,Breaking the stagnant woes which there unite,For misery in fine hopes finds no relief.
Words in this poem
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- inly a.
- Internal; interior; secret. [OE. inlich, AS. inlic. See In.]
- nathless adv.
- Nevertheless. Chaucer. Milton. E. Arnold. [OE. natheles, na the les, not the less, AS. na never. See Na, The, conj., and cf. Nevertheless.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dialogue of the Poet with His Heart 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, Dialogue of the Poet with His Heart, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/dialogue-of-the-poet-with-his-heart.html, id L14672.
Form and metre
Dialogue of the Poet with His Heart is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 fillA · eterneB · discernB · illA · willA · burnB · learnB · stillA · lamentsC · brightD · griefC · contentsD · uniteC · reliefD
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| P. What actions fire thee, and what musings fill? | 11 | ··/˘/···/˘· |
| Soul! is it peace, or truce, or war eterne? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| H. Our lot I know not, but, as I discern, | 11 | ·/·······˘/ |
| Her bright eyes favour not our cherish'd ill. | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| P. What profit, with those eyes if she at will | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Makes us in summer freeze, in winter burn? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| H. From him, not her those orbs their movement learn. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| P. What's he to us, she sees it and is still. | 11 | ··········· |
| H. Sometimes, though mute the tongue, the heart laments | 11 | ·˘/······˘/ |
| Fondly, and, though the face be calm and bright, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Bleeds inly, where no eye beholds its grief. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| P. Nathless the mind not thus itself contents, | 11 | ·/˘····˘//˘ |
| Breaking the stagnant woes which there unite, | 10 | /˘·/˘···/· |
| For misery in fine hopes finds no relief. | 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.