His Lyre Is Now Attuned Only to Woe
The eyes, the face, the limbs of heavenly mould,So long the theme of my impassion'd lay,Charms which so stole me from myself away,That strange to other men the course I hold;The crisped locks of pure and lucid gold,The lightning of the angelic smile, whose rayTo earth could all of paradise convey,A little dust are now!--to feeling cold!And yet I live!--but that I live bewail,Sunk the loved light that through the tempest ledMy shatter'd bark, bereft of mast and sail:Hush'd be for aye the song that breathed love's fire!Lost is the theme on which my fancy fed,And turn'd to mourning my once tuneful lyre.
Words in this poem
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
His Lyre Is Now Attuned Only to Woe 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 Lyre Is Now Attuned Only to Woe, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/his-lyre-is-now-attuned-only-to-woe.html, id L14876.
Form and metre
His Lyre Is Now Attuned Only to Woe 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%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 mouldA · layB · awayB · holdA · goldA · rayB · conveyB · coldA · bewailC · ledD · sailC · fireD · fedC · lyreD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The eyes, the face, the limbs of heavenly mould, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| So long the theme of my impassion'd lay, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Charms which so stole me from myself away, | 10 | ·······/˘/ |
| That strange to other men the course I hold; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The crisped locks of pure and lucid gold, | 10 | ··˘····/˘· |
| The lightning of the angelic smile, whose ray | 11 | ·/˘···/˘··· |
| To earth could all of paradise convey, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| A little dust are now!--to feeling cold! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And yet I live!--but that I live bewail, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Sunk the loved light that through the tempest led | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My shatter'd bark, bereft of mast and sail: | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Hush'd be for aye the song that breathed love's fire! | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Lost is the theme on which my fancy fed, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And turn'd to mourning my once tuneful lyre. | 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.