His Heart, Rejected by Laura, Will Perish, Unless She Relent
A thousand times, sweet warrior, have I tried,Proffering my heart to thee, some peace to gainFrom those bright eyes, but still, alas! in vain,To such low level stoops not thy chaste pride.If others seek the love thus thrown aside,Vain were their hopes and labours to obtain;The heart thou spurnest I alike disdain,To thee displeasing, 'tis by me denied.But if, discarded thus, it find not theeIts joyless exile willing to befriend,Alone, untaught at others' will to wend,Soon from life's weary burden will it flee.How heavy then the guilt to both, but moreTo thee, for thee it did the most adore.
Words in this poem
- joyless a.
- Not having joy; not causing joy; unenjoyable.
- befriend v. t.
- To act as a friend to; to favor; to aid, benefit, or countenance.
- wend n.
- A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
His Heart, Rejected by Laura, Will Perish, Unless She Relent 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, His Heart, Rejected by Laura, Will Perish, Unless She Relent, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/his-heart-rejected-by-laura-will-perish-unless-she-relent.html, id L14497.
Form and metre
His Heart, Rejected by Laura, Will Perish, Unless She Relent 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%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 triedA · gainB · vainB · prideA · asideA · obtainB · disdainB · deniedA · theeC · befriendD · wendC · fleeD · moreC · adoreD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A thousand times, sweet warrior, have I tried, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Proffering my heart to thee, some peace to gain | 10 | /˘········ |
| From those bright eyes, but still, alas! in vain, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| To such low level stoops not thy chaste pride. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| If others seek the love thus thrown aside, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Vain were their hopes and labours to obtain; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The heart thou spurnest I alike disdain, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| To thee displeasing, 'tis by me denied. | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| But if, discarded thus, it find not thee | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Its joyless exile willing to befriend, | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Alone, untaught at others' will to wend, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Soon from life's weary burden will it flee. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| How heavy then the guilt to both, but more | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To thee, for thee it did the most adore. | 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.