He Acknowledges the Wisdom of Her Past Coldness to Him
My noble flame--more fair than fairest areWhom kind Heaven here has e'er in favour shown--Before her time, alas for me! has flownTo her celestial home and parent star.I seem but now to wake; wherein a barShe placed on passion 'twas for good alone,As, with a gentle coldness all her own,She waged with my hot wishes virtuous war.My thanks on her for such wise care I press,That with her lovely face and sweet disdainShe check'd my love and taught me peace to gain.O graceful artifice! deserved success!I with my fond verse, with her bright eyes she,Glory in her, she virtue got in me.
Words in this poem
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- virtuous a.
- Possessing or exhibiting virtue. Specifically: -- (a) Exhibiting manly courage and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [OE. vertuous, OF. vertuos, vertuous, F. vertueux, fr. L. Virtuous. See Virtue, and cf. Virtuoso.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Acknowledges the Wisdom of Her Past Coldness to Him 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, He Acknowledges the Wisdom of Her Past Coldness to Him, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-acknowledges-the-wisdom-of-her-past-coldness-to-him.html, id L14871.
Form and metre
He Acknowledges the Wisdom of Her Past Coldness to Him 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 89%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% 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 areA · shownB · flownB · starA · barA · aloneB · ownB · warA · pressC · disdainD · gainC · successD · sheC · meD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My noble flame--more fair than fairest are | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Whom kind Heaven here has e'er in favour shown-- | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Before her time, alas for me! has flown | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| To her celestial home and parent star. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| I seem but now to wake; wherein a bar | 10 | ·········· |
| She placed on passion 'twas for good alone, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| As, with a gentle coldness all her own, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| She waged with my hot wishes virtuous war. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| My thanks on her for such wise care I press, | 10 | ·········· |
| That with her lovely face and sweet disdain | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| She check'd my love and taught me peace to gain. | 10 | ·········· |
| O graceful artifice! deserved success! | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/˘/ |
| I with my fond verse, with her bright eyes she, | 10 | ·········· |
| Glory in her, she virtue got in me. | 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.