He Describes the Apparition of Laura (Macgregor)
With grief and tears (my soul's proud sovereign's food)I ever nourish still my aching heart;I feel my blanching cheek, and oft I startAs on Love's sharp engraven wound I brood.But she, who e'er on earth unrivall'd stood,Flits o'er my couch, when prostrate by his dartI lie; and there her presence doth impart.Whilst scarce my eyes dare meet their vision'd good,With that fair hand in life I so desired,She stays my eyes' sad tide; her voice's toneAwakes the balm earth ne'er to man can give:And thus she speaks:--"Oh! vain hath wisdom firedThe hopeless mourner's breast; no more bemoan,I am not dead--would thou like me couldst live!"
Words in this poem
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- bemoan v. t.
- To express deep grief for by moaning; to express sorrow for; to lament; to bewail; to pity or sympathize with. [OE. bimenen, AS. bem; pref. be- + m to moan. See Moan.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Describes the Apparition of Laura (Macgregor) 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 the Apparition of Laura (Macgregor), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-describes-the-apparition-of-laura-macgregor.html, id L14966.
Form and metre
He Describes the Apparition of Laura (Macgregor) 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 93%).
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 foodA · heartB · startB · broodA · stoodA · dartB · impartB · goodA · desiredC · toneD · giveC · firedD · bemoanC · liveD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With grief and tears (my soul's proud sovereign's food) | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I ever nourish still my aching heart; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| I feel my blanching cheek, and oft I start | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As on Love's sharp engraven wound I brood. | 10 | ·········· |
| But she, who e'er on earth unrivall'd stood, | 10 | ·········· |
| Flits o'er my couch, when prostrate by his dart | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I lie; and there her presence doth impart. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Whilst scarce my eyes dare meet their vision'd good, | 10 | ·········· |
| With that fair hand in life I so desired, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| She stays my eyes' sad tide; her voice's tone | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Awakes the balm earth ne'er to man can give: | 10 | ˘/········ |
| And thus she speaks:--"Oh! vain hath wisdom fired | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| The hopeless mourner's breast; no more bemoan, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| I am not dead--would thou like me couldst live!" | 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.