During a Serious Illness of Laura
Love, Nature, Laura's gentle self combines,She where each lofty virtue dwells and reigns,Against my peace: To pierce with mortal painsLove toils--such ever are his stern designs.Nature by bonds so slight to earth confinesHer slender form, a breath may break its chains;And she, so much her heart the world disdains,Longer to tread life's wearying round repines.Hence still in her sweet frame we view decayAll that to earth can joy and radiance lend,Or serve as mirror to this laggard age;And Death's dread purpose should not Pity stay,Too well I see where all those hopes must end,With which I fondly soothed my lingering pilgrimage.
Words in this poem
- laggard a.
- Slow; sluggish; backward. [Lag + -ard.]
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- pilgrimage n.
- The journey of a pilgrim; a long journey; especially, a journey to a shrine or other sacred place. Fig., the journey of human life. [OE. pilgrimage, pelgrinage; cf. F. pèlerinage.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
During a Serious Illness of Laura 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, During a Serious Illness of Laura, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/during-a-serious-illness-of-laura.html, id L14724.
Form and metre
During a Serious Illness of Laura 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 86%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends 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 combinesA · reignsB · painsB · designsA · confinesA · chainsB · disdainsB · repinesA · decayC · lendD · ageC · stayD · endC · pilgrimageD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love, Nature, Laura's gentle self combines, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| She where each lofty virtue dwells and reigns, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Against my peace: To pierce with mortal pains | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Love toils--such ever are his stern designs. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Nature by bonds so slight to earth confines | 10 | /˘······/· |
| Her slender form, a breath may break its chains; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And she, so much her heart the world disdains, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Longer to tread life's wearying round repines. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Hence still in her sweet frame we view decay | 10 | ········˘/ |
| All that to earth can joy and radiance lend, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Or serve as mirror to this laggard age; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And Death's dread purpose should not Pity stay, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Too well I see where all those hopes must end, | 10 | ·········· |
| With which I fondly soothed my lingering pilgrimage. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
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.