He Writes What Love Bids Him
White--to my heart Love oftentimes had said--Write what thou seest in letters large of gold,That livid are my votaries to behold,And in a moment made alive and dead.Once in thy heart my sovran influence spreadA public precedent to lovers told;Though other duties drew thee from my fold,I soon reclaim'd thee as thy footsteps fled.And if the bright eyes which I show'd thee first,If the fair face where most I loved to stay,Thy young heart's icy hardness when I burst,Restore to me the bow which all obey,Then may thy cheek, which now so smooth appears,Be channell'd with my daily drink of tears.
Words in this poem
- oftentimes adv.
- Frequently; often; many times. [Often + time. Cf. -wards.]
- sovran a.
- A variant of Sovereign.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He Writes What Love Bids Him 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 Writes What Love Bids Him, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/he-writes-what-love-bids-him.html, id L14597.
Form and metre
He Writes What Love Bids Him 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 90%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% 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 saidA · goldB · beholdB · deadA · spreadA · toldB · foldB · fledA · firstC · stayD · burstC · obeyD · appearsC · tearsD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| White--to my heart Love oftentimes had said-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Write what thou seest in letters large of gold, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That livid are my votaries to behold, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And in a moment made alive and dead. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Once in thy heart my sovran influence spread | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| A public precedent to lovers told; | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Though other duties drew thee from my fold, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| I soon reclaim'd thee as thy footsteps fled. | 10 | ··˘/···/·· |
| And if the bright eyes which I show'd thee first, | 10 | ·········· |
| If the fair face where most I loved to stay, | 10 | ·········· |
| Thy young heart's icy hardness when I burst, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Restore to me the bow which all obey, | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| Then may thy cheek, which now so smooth appears, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Be channell'd with my daily drink of tears. | 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.