Her Cruelty Renders Life Worse than Death to Him
Through the long lingering day, estranged from rest,My sorrows flow unceasing; doubly flow,Painful prerogative of lover's woe!In that still hour, when slumber soothes th' unblest.With such deep anguish is my heart opprest,So stream mine eyes with tears! Of things belowMost miserable I; for Cupid's bowHas banish'd quiet from this heaving breast.Ah me! while thus in suffering, morn to mornAnd eve to eve succeeds, of death I view(So should this life be named) one-half gone by--Yet this I weep not, but another's scorn;That she, my friend, so tender and so true,Should see me hopeless burn, and yet her aid deny.
Words in this poem
- unblest a.
- Not blest; excluded from benediction; hence, accursed; wretched. [Pref. un- not + blessed, blest.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Her Cruelty Renders Life Worse than Death to 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, Her Cruelty Renders Life Worse than Death to Him, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/her-cruelty-renders-life-worse-than-death-to-him.html, id L14770.
Form and metre
Her Cruelty Renders Life Worse than Death to 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 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 restA · flowB · woeB · unblestA · opprestA · belowB · bowB · breastA · mornC · viewD · byC · scornD · trueC · denyD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Through the long lingering day, estranged from rest, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| My sorrows flow unceasing; doubly flow, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Painful prerogative of lover's woe! | 10 | /˘˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| In that still hour, when slumber soothes th' unblest. | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| With such deep anguish is my heart opprest, | 11 | ···/˘···/˘˘ |
| So stream mine eyes with tears! Of things below | 10 | ·········· |
| Most miserable I; for Cupid's bow | 10 | ·/˘˘˘··/˘· |
| Has banish'd quiet from this heaving breast. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Ah me! while thus in suffering, morn to morn | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And eve to eve succeeds, of death I view | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| (So should this life be named) one-half gone by-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet this I weep not, but another's scorn; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| That she, my friend, so tender and so true, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Should see me hopeless burn, and yet her aid deny. | 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.