He Inveighs Against Laura's Mirror, Because It Makes Her Forget Him
Those golden tresses, teeth of pearly white,Those cheeks' fair roses blooming to decay,Do in their beauty to my soul conveyThe poison'd arrows from my aching sight.Thus sad and briefly must my days take flight,For life with woe not long on earth will stay;But more I blame that mirror's flattering sway,Which thou hast wearied with thy self-delight.Its power my bosom's sovereign too hath still'd,Who pray'd thee in my suit--now he is mute,Since thou art captured by thyself alone:Death's seeds it hath within my heart instill'd,For Lethe's stream its form doth constitute,And makes thee lose each image but thine own.
Words in this poem
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Inveighs Against Laura's Mirror, Because It Makes Her Forget Him 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 Inveighs Against Laura's Mirror, Because It Makes Her Forget Him, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-inveighs-against-laura-s-mirror-because-it-makes-her-forg.html, id L14533.
Form and metre
He Inveighs Against Laura's Mirror, Because It Makes Her Forget Him 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%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% 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 whiteA · decayB · conveyB · sightA · flightA · stayB · swayB · delightA · still'dC · muteD · aloneC · instill'dD · constituteC · ownD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Those golden tresses, teeth of pearly white, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Those cheeks' fair roses blooming to decay, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Do in their beauty to my soul convey | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The poison'd arrows from my aching sight. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Thus sad and briefly must my days take flight, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For life with woe not long on earth will stay; | 10 | ·········· |
| But more I blame that mirror's flattering sway, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Which thou hast wearied with thy self-delight. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Its power my bosom's sovereign too hath still'd, | 10 | ·/·/˘/˘··· |
| Who pray'd thee in my suit--now he is mute, | 10 | ·········· |
| Since thou art captured by thyself alone: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Death's seeds it hath within my heart instill'd, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For Lethe's stream its form doth constitute, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And makes thee lose each image but thine own. | 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.