He Envies Earth, Heaven, and Death Their Possession of His Treasure (Woodhouselee)
What envy of the greedy earth I bear,That holds from me within its cold embraceThe light, the meaning, of that angel face,On which to gaze could soften e'en despair.What envy of the saints, in realms so fair,Who eager seem'd, from that bright form of graceThe spirit pure to summon to its place,Amidst those joys, which few can hope to share;What envy of the blest in heaven above,With whom she dwells in sympathies divineDenied to me on earth, though sought in sighs;And oh! what envy of stern Death I prove,That with her life has ta'en the light of mine,Yet calls me not,--though fixed and cold those eyes.
Words in this poem
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Envies Earth, Heaven, and Death Their Possession of His Treasure (Woodhouselee) 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 (Woodhouselee), 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-treasure-woodhouselee.html, id L14894.
Form and metre
He Envies Earth, Heaven, and Death Their Possession of His Treasure (Woodhouselee) 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 92%).
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 bearA · embraceB · faceB · despairA · fairA · graceB · placeB · shareA · aboveC · divineD · sighsC · proveD · mineC · eyesD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What envy of the greedy earth I bear, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That holds from me within its cold embrace | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The light, the meaning, of that angel face, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| On which to gaze could soften e'en despair. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| What envy of the saints, in realms so fair, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Who eager seem'd, from that bright form of grace | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The spirit pure to summon to its place, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Amidst those joys, which few can hope to share; | 10 | ˘/········ |
| What envy of the blest in heaven above, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| With whom she dwells in sympathies divine | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| Denied to me on earth, though sought in sighs; | 10 | ˘/········ |
| And oh! what envy of stern Death I prove, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That with her life has ta'en the light of mine, | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet calls me not,--though fixed and cold those eyes. | 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.