He Deplores His Lost Liberty and the Unhappiness of His Present State
Alas! fair Liberty, thus left by thee,Well hast thou taught my discontented heartTo mourn the peace it felt, ere yet Love's dartDealt me the wound which heal'd can never be;Mine eyes so charm'd with their own weakness growThat my dull mind of reason spurns the chain;All worldly occupation they disdain,Ah! that I should myself have train'd them so.Naught, save of her who is my death, mine earConsents to learn; and from my tongue there flowsNo accent save the name to me so dear;Love to no other chase my spirit spurs,No other path my feet pursue; nor knowsMy hand to write in other praise but hers.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Deplores His Lost Liberty and the Unhappiness of His Present State 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 Deplores His Lost Liberty and the Unhappiness of His Present State, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-deplores-his-lost-liberty-and-the-unhappiness-of-his-pres.html, id L14601.
Form and metre
He Deplores His Lost Liberty and the Unhappiness of His Present State 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%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% 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 theeA · heartB · dartB · beA · growA · chainB · disdainB · soA · earC · flowsD · dearC · spursD · knowsC · hersD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alas! fair Liberty, thus left by thee, | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘···· |
| Well hast thou taught my discontented heart | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| To mourn the peace it felt, ere yet Love's dart | 10 | ·········· |
| Dealt me the wound which heal'd can never be; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Mine eyes so charm'd with their own weakness grow | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That my dull mind of reason spurns the chain; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| All worldly occupation they disdain, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Ah! that I should myself have train'd them so. | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Naught, save of her who is my death, mine ear | 10 | ·········· |
| Consents to learn; and from my tongue there flows | 10 | ˘/········ |
| No accent save the name to me so dear; | 10 | ·˘/······· |
| Love to no other chase my spirit spurs, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| No other path my feet pursue; nor knows | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| My hand to write in other praise but hers. | 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.