He Describes the Apparition of Laura
Food wherewithal my lord is well supplied,With tears and grief my weary heart I've fed;As fears within and paleness o'er me spread,Oft thinking on its fatal wound and wide:But in her time with whom no other vied,Equal or second, to my suffering bedComes she to look on whom I almost dread,And takes her seat in pity by my side.With that fair hand, so long desired in vain,She check'd my tears, while at her accents creptA sweetness to my soul, intense, divine."Is this thy wisdom, to parade thy pain?No longer weep! hast thou not amply wept?Would that such life were thine as death is mine!"
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- amply adv.
- In an ample manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Describes the Apparition of Laura 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, 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.html, id L14965.
Form and metre
He Describes the Apparition of Laura 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 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 suppliedA · fedB · spreadB · wideA · viedA · bedB · dreadB · sideA · vainC · creptD · divineC · painD · weptC · mineD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Food wherewithal my lord is well supplied, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| With tears and grief my weary heart I've fed; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As fears within and paleness o'er me spread, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Oft thinking on its fatal wound and wide: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But in her time with whom no other vied, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Equal or second, to my suffering bed | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Comes she to look on whom I almost dread, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| And takes her seat in pity by my side. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With that fair hand, so long desired in vain, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| She check'd my tears, while at her accents crept | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A sweetness to my soul, intense, divine. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| "Is this thy wisdom, to parade thy pain? | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| No longer weep! hast thou not amply wept? | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Would that such life were thine as death is mine!" | 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.