He Envies Earth, Heaven, and Death Their Possession of His Treasure
O earth, whose clay-cold mantle shrouds that face,And veils those eyes that late so brightly shone,Whence all that gave delight on earth was known,How much I envy thee that harsh embrace!O heaven, that in thy airy courts confinedThat purest spirit, when from earth she fled,And sought the mansions of the righteous dead;How envious, thus to leave my panting soul behind!O angels, that in your seraphic choirReceived her sister-soul, and now enjoyStill present, those delights without alloy,Which my fond heart must still in vain desire!In her I lived--in her my life decays;Yet envious Fate denies to end my hapless days.
Words in this poem
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
- seraphic a.
- Of or pertaining to a seraph; becoming, or suitable to, a seraph; angelic; sublime; pure; refined. [Cf. F. séraphique.]
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Envies Earth, Heaven, and Death Their Possession of His Treasure 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 Envies Earth, Heaven, and Death Their Possession of His Treasure, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-envies-earth-heaven-and-death-their-possession-of-his-tre.html, id L14893.
Form and metre
He Envies Earth, Heaven, and Death Their Possession of His Treasure 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 10.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 faceA · shoneB · knownB · embraceA · confinedA · fledB · deadB · behindA · choirC · enjoyD · alloyC · desireD · decaysC · daysD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O earth, whose clay-cold mantle shrouds that face, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And veils those eyes that late so brightly shone, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whence all that gave delight on earth was known, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| How much I envy thee that harsh embrace! | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| O heaven, that in thy airy courts confined | 10 | ·/···/˘·˘/ |
| That purest spirit, when from earth she fled, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And sought the mansions of the righteous dead; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| How envious, thus to leave my panting soul behind! | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| O angels, that in your seraphic choir | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Received her sister-soul, and now enjoy | 10 | ˘/·/˘···˘/ |
| Still present, those delights without alloy, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··/· |
| Which my fond heart must still in vain desire! | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| In her I lived--in her my life decays; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Yet envious Fate denies to end my hapless days. | 12 | ·/˘·˘/···/˘· |
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.