Far from His Beloved, Life Is Miserable by Night as by Day
Never was bird, spoil'd of its young, more sad,Or wild beast in his lair more lone than me,Now that no more that lovely face I see,The only sun my fond eyes ever had.In ceaseless sorrow is my chief delight:My food to poison turns, to grief my joy;The night is torture, dark the clearest sky,And my lone pillow a hard field of fight.Sleep is indeed, as has been well express'd.Akin to death, for it the heart removesFrom the dear thought in which alone I live.Land above all with plenty, beauty bless'd!Ye flowery plains, green banks and shady groves!Ye hold the treasure for whose loss I grieve!
Words in this poem
- lair n.
- A place in which to lie or rest; especially, the bed or couch of a wild beast. [OE. leir, AS. leger; akin to D. leger, G. lager couch, lair, OHG. laga, Goth. ligrs, and to E. lie. See Lie to be prostrate, and cf. Layer, Leaguer.]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Far from His Beloved, Life Is Miserable by Night as by Day 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, Far from His Beloved, Life Is Miserable by Night as by Day, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/far-from-his-beloved-life-is-miserable-by-night-as-by-day.html, id L14785.
Form and metre
Far from His Beloved, Life Is Miserable by Night as by Day 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%). 100% 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 sadA · meB · seeB · hadA · delightA · joyB · skyB · fightA · express'dC · removesD · liveC · bless'dD · grovesC · grieveD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Never was bird, spoil'd of its young, more sad, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Or wild beast in his lair more lone than me, | 10 | ·········· |
| Now that no more that lovely face I see, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The only sun my fond eyes ever had. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| In ceaseless sorrow is my chief delight: | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| My food to poison turns, to grief my joy; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The night is torture, dark the clearest sky, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And my lone pillow a hard field of fight. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sleep is indeed, as has been well express'd. | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Akin to death, for it the heart removes | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| From the dear thought in which alone I live. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Land above all with plenty, beauty bless'd! | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Ye flowery plains, green banks and shady groves! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Ye hold the treasure for whose loss I grieve! | 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.