He Rejoices at Participating in Her Sufferings
Strange, passing strange adventure! when from oneOf the two brightest eyes which ever were,Beholding it with pain dis urb'd and dim,Moved influence which my own made dull and weak.I had return'd, to break the weary fastOf seeing her, my sole care in this world,Kinder to me were Heaven and Love than e'enIf all their other gifts together join'd,When from the right eye--rather the right sun--Of my dear Lady to my right eye cameThe ill which less my pain than pleasure makes;As if it intellect possess'd and wingsIt pass'd, as stars that shoot along the sky:Nature and pity then pursued their course.
Words in this poem
- beholding a.
- Obliged; beholden.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Rejoices at Participating in Her Sufferings 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 Rejoices at Participating in Her Sufferings, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-rejoices-at-participating-in-her-sufferings.html, id L14793.
Form and metre
He Rejoices at Participating in Her Sufferings 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. 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 oneA · wereB · dimB · weakA · fastA · worldB · e'enB · join'dA · sunC · cameD · makesC · wingsD · skyC · courseD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strange, passing strange adventure! when from one | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Of the two brightest eyes which ever were, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Beholding it with pain dis urb'd and dim, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Moved influence which my own made dull and weak. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I had return'd, to break the weary fast | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Of seeing her, my sole care in this world, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Kinder to me were Heaven and Love than e'en | 10 | /···/˘···· |
| If all their other gifts together join'd, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| When from the right eye--rather the right sun-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of my dear Lady to my right eye came | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The ill which less my pain than pleasure makes; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As if it intellect possess'd and wings | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| It pass'd, as stars that shoot along the sky: | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Nature and pity then pursued their course. | 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.