He Should Have Foreseen His Loss in the Unusual Lustre of Her Eyes
That glance of hers, pure, tender, clear, and sweet,Methought it said, "Take what thou canst while nigh;For here no more thou'lt see me, till on highFrom earth have mounted thy slow-moving feet."O intellect than forest pard more fleet!Yet slow and dull thy sorrow to descry,How didst thou fail to see in her bright eyeWhat since befell, whence I my ruin meet.Silently shining with a fire sublime,They said, "O friendly lights, which long have beenMirrors to us where gladly we were seen,Heaven waits for you, as ye shall know in time;Who bound us to the earth dissolves our bond,But wills in your despite that you shall live beyond."
Words in this poem
- pard n.
- A leopard; a panther. [L. pardus, Gr. p tiger, panther.]
- descry
- , Discovery or view, as of an army seen at a distance.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
- 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 Should Have Foreseen His Loss in the Unusual Lustre of Her Eyes 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 Should Have Foreseen His Loss in the Unusual Lustre of Her Eyes, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-should-have-foreseen-his-loss-in-the-unusual-lustre-of-he.html, id L14946.
Form and metre
He Should Have Foreseen His Loss in the Unusual Lustre of Her Eyes 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%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 sweetA · nighB · highB · feetA · fleetA · descryB · eyeB · meetA · sublimeC · beenD · seenC · timeD · bondC · beyondD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That glance of hers, pure, tender, clear, and sweet, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Methought it said, "Take what thou canst while nigh; | 10 | ˘/········ |
| For here no more thou'lt see me, till on high | 10 | ·········· |
| From earth have mounted thy slow-moving feet." | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| O intellect than forest pard more fleet! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Yet slow and dull thy sorrow to descry, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| How didst thou fail to see in her bright eye | 10 | ·········· |
| What since befell, whence I my ruin meet. | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Silently shining with a fire sublime, | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘/ |
| They said, "O friendly lights, which long have been | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Mirrors to us where gladly we were seen, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Heaven waits for you, as ye shall know in time; | 10 | /········· |
| Who bound us to the earth dissolves our bond, | 10 | ······˘//· |
| But wills in your despite that you shall live beyond." | 12 | ····˘/······ |
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.