He Awakes to a Conviction of the Near Approach of Death
My faithful mirror oft to me has told--My weary spirit and my shrivell'd skinMy failing powers to prove it all begin--"Deceive thyself no longer, thou art old."Man is in all by Nature best controll'd,And if with her we struggle, time creeps in;At the sad truth, on fire as waters win,A long and heavy sleep is off me roll'd;And I see clearly our vain life depart,That more than once our being cannot be:Her voice sounds ever in my inmost heart.Who now from her fair earthly frame is free:She walk'd the world so peerless and alone,Its fame and lustre all with her are flown.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Awakes to a Conviction of the Near Approach of Death 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 Awakes to a Conviction of the Near Approach of Death, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-awakes-to-a-conviction-of-the-near-approach-of-death.html, id L14985.
Form and metre
He Awakes to a Conviction of the Near Approach of Death 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 90%). 99% 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 toldA · skinB · beginB · oldA · controll'dA · inB · winB · roll'dA · departC · beD · heartC · freeD · aloneC · flownD
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 faithful mirror oft to me has told-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| My weary spirit and my shrivell'd skin | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| My failing powers to prove it all begin-- | 10 | ·/˘/····˘/ |
| "Deceive thyself no longer, thou art old." | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘··· |
| Man is in all by Nature best controll'd, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And if with her we struggle, time creeps in; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| At the sad truth, on fire as waters win, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| A long and heavy sleep is off me roll'd; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And I see clearly our vain life depart, | 10 | ···/˘/··˘/ |
| That more than once our being cannot be: | 10 | ····//˘/˘· |
| Her voice sounds ever in my inmost heart. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Who now from her fair earthly frame is free: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| She walk'd the world so peerless and alone, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Its fame and lustre all with her are flown. | 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.