He Describes His State, Specifying the Date of His Attachment
Passion impels me, Love escorts and leads,Pleasure attracts me, habits old enchain,Hope with its flatteries comforts me again,And, at my harass'd heart, with fond touch pleads.Poor wretch! it trusts her still, and little heedsThe blind and faithless leader of our train;Reason is dead, the senses only reign:One fond desire another still succeeds.Virtue and honour, beauty, courtesy,With winning words and many a graceful way,My heart entangled in that laurel sweet.In thirteen hundred seven and twenty, I--'Twas April, the first hour, on its sixth day--Enter'd Love's labyrinth, whence is no retreat.
Words in this poem
- enchain v. t.
- To bind with a chain; to hold in chains. [F. enchaîner; pref. en- (L. in) chaîne chain. See Chain, and cf. Incatenation.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Describes His State, Specifying the Date of His Attachment 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 Describes His State, Specifying the Date of His Attachment, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-describes-his-state-specifying-the-date-of-his-attachment.html, id L14762.
Form and metre
He Describes His State, Specifying the Date of His Attachment 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 83%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 leadsA · enchainB · againB · pleadsA · heedsA · trainB · reignB · succeedsA · courtesyC · wayD · sweetC · iD · dayC · retreatD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Passion impels me, Love escorts and leads, | 10 | /˘˘/··/˘·· |
| Pleasure attracts me, habits old enchain, | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Hope with its flatteries comforts me again, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And, at my harass'd heart, with fond touch pleads. | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| Poor wretch! it trusts her still, and little heeds | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The blind and faithless leader of our train; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/· |
| Reason is dead, the senses only reign: | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| One fond desire another still succeeds. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Virtue and honour, beauty, courtesy, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| With winning words and many a graceful way, | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| My heart entangled in that laurel sweet. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| In thirteen hundred seven and twenty, I | 10 | ·///˘/·/˘· |
| --'Twas April, the first hour, on its sixth day-- | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| Enter'd Love's labyrinth, whence is no retreat. | 11 | /˘·/˘····˘/ |
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.