He Implores Mercy or Death (Charlemont)
Go, burning sighs, to her cold bosom go,Its circling ice which hinders pity rend,And if to mortal prayer Heaven e'er attend,Let death or mercy finish soon my woe.Go forth, fond thoughts, and to our lady showThe love to which her bright looks never bend,If still her harshness, or my star offend,We shall at least our hopeless error know.Go, in some chosen moment, gently say,Our state disquieted and dark has been,Even as hers pacific and serene.Go, safe at last, for Love escorts your way:From my sun's face if right the skies I guessWell may my cruel fortune now be less.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Implores Mercy or Death (Charlemont) 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 Implores Mercy or Death (Charlemont), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-implores-mercy-or-death-charlemont.html, id L14678.
Form and metre
He Implores Mercy or Death (Charlemont) 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 87%).
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 goA · rendB · attendB · woeA · showA · bendB · offendB · knowA · sayC · beenD · sereneC · wayD · guessC · lessD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Go, burning sighs, to her cold bosom go, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Its circling ice which hinders pity rend, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And if to mortal prayer Heaven e'er attend, | 10 | ···/˘·/·˘/ |
| Let death or mercy finish soon my woe. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Go forth, fond thoughts, and to our lady show | 10 | ······//˘· |
| The love to which her bright looks never bend, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| If still her harshness, or my star offend, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| We shall at least our hopeless error know. | 10 | ····//˘/˘· |
| Go, in some chosen moment, gently say, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Our state disquieted and dark has been, | 10 | /·˘/˘˘···· |
| Even as hers pacific and serene. | 10 | /˘··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Go, safe at last, for Love escorts your way: | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| From my sun's face if right the skies I guess | 10 | ·········· |
| Well may my cruel fortune now be less. | 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.