He Fears That He Is Incapable of Worthily Celebrating Her
The son of Philip, when he saw the tombOf fierce Achilles, with a sigh, thus said:"O happy, whose achievements erst found roomFrom that illustrious trumpet to be spreadO'er earth for ever!"--But, beyond the gloomOf deep Oblivion shall that loveliest maid,Whose like to view seems not of earthly doom,By my imperfect accents be convey'd?Her of the Homeric, the Orphean Lyre,Most worthy, or that shepherd, Mantua's pride,To be the theme of their immortal lays;Her stars and unpropitious fate deniedThis palm:--and me bade to such height aspire,Who, haply, dim her glories by my praise.
Words in this poem
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- homeric a.
- Of or pertaining to Homer, the most famous of Greek poets; resembling the poetry of Homer. Homeric verse, hexameter verse; -- so called because used by Homer in his epics.
- orphean a.
- Of or pertaining to Orpheus, the mythic poet and musician; as, Orphean strains.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- aspire v. t.
- To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Fears That He Is Incapable of Worthily Celebrating Her 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 Fears That He Is Incapable of Worthily Celebrating Her, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-fears-that-he-is-incapable-of-worthily-celebrating-her.html, id L14728.
Form and metre
He Fears That He Is Incapable of Worthily Celebrating Her 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 86%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% 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 tombA · saidB · roomB · spreadA · gloomA · maidB · doomB · convey'dA · lyreC · prideD · laysC · deniedD · aspireC · praiseD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The son of Philip, when he saw the tomb | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of fierce Achilles, with a sigh, thus said: | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| "O happy, whose achievements erst found room | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| From that illustrious trumpet to be spread | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| O'er earth for ever!"--But, beyond the gloom | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of deep Oblivion shall that loveliest maid, | 11 | ··˘/˘······ |
| Whose like to view seems not of earthly doom, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| By my imperfect accents be convey'd? | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Her of the Homeric, the Orphean Lyre, | 11 | ···˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Most worthy, or that shepherd, Mantua's pride, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| To be the theme of their immortal lays; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Her stars and unpropitious fate denied | 10 | ········˘/ |
| This palm:--and me bade to such height aspire, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Who, haply, dim her glories by my praise. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
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