He Returns the Glove, Bewailing the Effect of Her Beauty
Not of one dear hand only I complain,Which hides it, to my loss, again from view,But its fair fellow and her soft arms tooAre prompt my meek and passive heart to pain.Love spreads a thousand toils, nor one in vain,Amid the many charms, bright, pure, and new,That so her high and heavenly part endue,No style can equal it, no mind attain.That starry forehead and those tranquil eyes,The fair angelic mouth, where pearl and roseContrast each other, whence rich music flows,These fill the gazer with a fond surprise,The fine head, the bright tresses which defiedThe sun to match them in his noonday pride.
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- endue v. t.
- To invest. Latham. [L. induere, prob. confused with E. endow. See Indue.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- noonday n.
- Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Returns the Glove, Bewailing the Effect of Her Beauty 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 Returns the Glove, Bewailing the Effect of Her Beauty, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-returns-the-glove-bewailing-the-effect-of-her-beauty.html, id L14750.
Form and metre
He Returns the Glove, Bewailing the Effect of Her Beauty 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 88%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% 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 complainA · viewB · tooB · painA · vainA · newB · endueB · attainA · eyesC · roseD · flowsC · surpriseD · defiedC · prideD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not of one dear hand only I complain, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Which hides it, to my loss, again from view, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| But its fair fellow and her soft arms too | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Are prompt my meek and passive heart to pain. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Love spreads a thousand toils, nor one in vain, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Amid the many charms, bright, pure, and new, | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| That so her high and heavenly part endue, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| No style can equal it, no mind attain. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| That starry forehead and those tranquil eyes, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The fair angelic mouth, where pearl and rose | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Contrast each other, whence rich music flows, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| These fill the gazer with a fond surprise, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The fine head, the bright tresses which defied | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The sun to match them in his noonday pride. | 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.