Her True Worth Was Known Only to Him and to Heaven
Death, thou the world, since that dire arrow sped,Sunless and cold hast left; Love weak and blind;Beauty and grace their brilliance have resign'd,And from my heavy heart all joy is fled;Honour is sunk, and softness banished.I weep alone the woes which all my kindShould weep--for virtue's fairest flower has pinedBeneath thy touch: what second blooms instead?Let earth, sea, air, with common wail bemoanMan's hapless race; which now, since Laura died,A flowerless mead, a gemless ring appears.The world possess'd, nor knew her worth, till flown!I knew it well, who here in grief abide;And heaven too knows, which decks its forehead with my tears.
Words in this poem
- dire a.
- Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens. [L. dirus; of uncertain origin.]
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- bemoan v. t.
- To express deep grief for by moaning; to express sorrow for; to lament; to bewail; to pity or sympathize with. [OE. bimenen, AS. bem; pref. be- + m to moan. See Moan.]
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- laura n.
- A number of hermitages or cells in the same neighborhood occupied by anchorites who were under the same superior. C. Kingsley.
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Her True Worth Was Known Only to Him and to Heaven 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 True Worth Was Known Only to Him and to Heaven, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/her-true-worth-was-known-only-to-him-and-to-heaven.html, id L14960.
Form and metre
Her True Worth Was Known Only to Him and to Heaven 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%). 92% 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. 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 spedA · blindB · resign'dB · fledA · banishedA · kindB · pinedB · insteadA · bemoanC · diedD · appearsC · flownD · abideC · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Death, thou the world, since that dire arrow sped, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sunless and cold hast left; Love weak and blind; | 10 | /˘········ |
| Beauty and grace their brilliance have resign'd, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| And from my heavy heart all joy is fled; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Honour is sunk, and softness banished. | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| I weep alone the woes which all my kind | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Should weep--for virtue's fairest flower has pined | 10 | ···/˘/˘/·· |
| Beneath thy touch: what second blooms instead? | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Let earth, sea, air, with common wail bemoan | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Man's hapless race; which now, since Laura died, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A flowerless mead, a gemless ring appears. | 11 | ·/˘˘·····˘/ |
| The world possess'd, nor knew her worth, till flown! | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| I knew it well, who here in grief abide; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And heaven too knows, which decks its forehead with my tears. | 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.