Happy Who Steered the Boat, or Drove the Car, Wherein She Sat and Sang
Twelve ladies, their rare toil who lightly bore,Rather twelve stars encircling a bright sun,I saw, gay-seated a small bark upon,Whose like the waters never cleaved before:Not such took Jason to the fleece of yore,Whose fatal gold has ev'ry heart now won,Nor such the shepherd boy's, by whom undoneTroy mourns, whose fame has pass'd the wide world o'er.I saw them next on a triumphal car,Where, known by her chaste cherub ways, asideMy Laura sate and to them sweetly sung.Things not of earth to man such visions are!Blest Tiphys! blest Automedon! to guideThe bark, or car of band so bright and young.
Words in this poem
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- triumphal n.
- A token of victory.
- cherub n.
- A mysterious composite being, the winged footstool and chariot of the Almighty, described in Ezekiel i. and x. [Heb. kerub.]
- laura n.
- A number of hermitages or cells in the same neighborhood occupied by anchorites who were under the same superior. C. Kingsley.
- sate v. t.
- To satisfy the desire or appetite of; to satiate; to glut; to surfeit. [Probably shortened fr. satiate: cf. L. satus full. See Satiate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Happy Who Steered the Boat, or Drove the Car, Wherein She Sat and Sang 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, Happy Who Steered the Boat, or Drove the Car, Wherein She Sat and Sang, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/happy-who-steered-the-boat-or-drove-the-car-wherein-she-sat-.html, id L14784.
Form and metre
Happy Who Steered the Boat, or Drove the Car, Wherein She Sat and Sang 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%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 boreA · sunB · uponB · beforeA · yoreA · wonB · undoneB · o'erA · carC · asideD · sungC · areD · guideC · youngD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Twelve ladies, their rare toil who lightly bore, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Rather twelve stars encircling a bright sun, | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| I saw, gay-seated a small bark upon, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Whose like the waters never cleaved before: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Not such took Jason to the fleece of yore, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Whose fatal gold has ev'ry heart now won, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Nor such the shepherd boy's, by whom undone | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Troy mourns, whose fame has pass'd the wide world o'er. | 10 | ·········· |
| I saw them next on a triumphal car, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Where, known by her chaste cherub ways, aside | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| My Laura sate and to them sweetly sung. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Things not of earth to man such visions are! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Blest Tiphys! blest Automedon! to guide | 10 | ·········· |
| The bark, or car of band so bright and young. | 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.