He Vents His Sorrow to All Who Witnessed His Former Felicity
Love, that in happier days wouldst meet me hereAlong these meads that nursed our kindred strains;And that old debt to clear which still remains,Sweet converse with the stream and me wouldst share:Ye flowers, leaves, grass, woods, grots, rills, gentle air,Low valleys, lofty hills, and sunny plains:The harbour where I stored my love-sick pains,And all my various chance, my racking care:Ye playful inmates of the greenwood shade;Ye nymphs, and ye that in the waves pursueThat life its cool and grassy bottom lends:--My days were once so fair; now dark and dreadAs death that makes them so. Thus the world throughOn each as soon as born his fate attends.
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
- racking n.
- Spun yarn used in racking ropes.
- greenwood n.
- A forest as it appears is spring and summer.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Vents His Sorrow to All Who Witnessed His Former Felicity 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 Vents His Sorrow to All Who Witnessed His Former Felicity, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-vents-his-sorrow-to-all-who-witnessed-his-former-felicity.html, id L14899.
Form and metre
He Vents His Sorrow to All Who Witnessed His Former Felicity 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 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% 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 hereA · strainsB · remainsB · shareA · airA · plainsB · painsB · careA · shadeC · pursueD · lendsC · dreadD · throughC · attendsD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love, that in happier days wouldst meet me here | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Along these meads that nursed our kindred strains; | 10 | ˘/····//˘· |
| And that old debt to clear which still remains, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Sweet converse with the stream and me wouldst share: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Ye flowers, leaves, grass, woods, grots, rills, gentle air, | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| Low valleys, lofty hills, and sunny plains: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The harbour where I stored my love-sick pains, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And all my various chance, my racking care: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Ye playful inmates of the greenwood shade; | 10 | ·/˘/···/·· |
| Ye nymphs, and ye that in the waves pursue | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That life its cool and grassy bottom lends:-- | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| My days were once so fair; now dark and dread | 10 | ·········· |
| As death that makes them so. Thus the world through | 10 | ·········· |
| On each as soon as born his fate attends. | 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.