He Leaves Vaucluse, but His Spirit Remains There with Laura
The loved hills where I left myself behind,Whence ever 'twas so hard my steps to tear,Before me rise; at each remove I bearThe dear load to my lot by Love consign'd.Often I wonder inly in my mind,That still the fair yoke holds me, which despairWould vainly break, that yet I breathe this air;Though long the chain, its links but closer bind.And as a stag, sore struck by hunter's dart,Whose poison'd iron rankles in his breast,Flies and more grieves the more the chase is press'd,So I, with Love's keen arrow in my heart,Endure at once my death and my delight,Rack'd with long grief, and weary with vain flight.
Words in this poem
- inly a.
- Internal; interior; secret. [OE. inlich, AS. inlic. See In.]
- closer n.
- One who, or that which, closes; specifically, a boot closer. See under Boot.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Leaves Vaucluse, but His Spirit Remains There with Laura 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 Leaves Vaucluse, but His Spirit Remains There with Laura, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-leaves-vaucluse-but-his-spirit-remains-there-with-laura.html, id L14759.
Form and metre
He Leaves Vaucluse, but His Spirit Remains There with Laura 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 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 14% 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 behindA · tearB · bearB · consign'dA · mindA · despairB · airB · bindA · dartC · breastD · press'dC · heartD · delightC · flightD
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 loved hills where I left myself behind, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Whence ever 'twas so hard my steps to tear, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Before me rise; at each remove I bear | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The dear load to my lot by Love consign'd. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Often I wonder inly in my mind, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| That still the fair yoke holds me, which despair | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Would vainly break, that yet I breathe this air; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Though long the chain, its links but closer bind. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And as a stag, sore struck by hunter's dart, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whose poison'd iron rankles in his breast, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Flies and more grieves the more the chase is press'd, | 10 | ·········· |
| So I, with Love's keen arrow in my heart, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Endure at once my death and my delight, | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| Rack'd with long grief, and weary with vain flight. | 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.