His Passion Finds Its Only Consolation in Contemplating Her in Heaven
My days more swiftly than the forest hindHave fled like shadows, and no pleasure seenSave for a moment, and few hours serene,Whose bitter-sweet I treasure in true mind.O wretched world, unstable, wayward! BlindWhose hopes in thee alone have centred been;In thee my heart was captived by her mienWho bore it with her when she earth rejoin'd:Her better spirit, now a deathless flower,And in the highest heaven that still shall be,Each day inflames me with its beauties more.Alone, though frailer, fonder every hour,I muse on her--Now what, and where is she,And what the lovely veil which here she wore?
Words in this poem
- wayward a.
- Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
His Passion Finds Its Only Consolation in Contemplating Her in 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, His Passion Finds Its Only Consolation in Contemplating Her in Heaven, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/his-passion-finds-its-only-consolation-in-contemplating-her-.html, id L14926.
Form and metre
His Passion Finds Its Only Consolation in Contemplating Her in 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 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end 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 hindA · seenB · sereneB · mindA · blindA · beenB · mienB · rejoin'dA · flowerC · beD · moreC · hourD · sheC · woreD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My days more swiftly than the forest hind | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Have fled like shadows, and no pleasure seen | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Save for a moment, and few hours serene, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘/ |
| Whose bitter-sweet I treasure in true mind. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| O wretched world, unstable, wayward! Blind | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Whose hopes in thee alone have centred been; | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| In thee my heart was captived by her mien | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who bore it with her when she earth rejoin'd: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Her better spirit, now a deathless flower, | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And in the highest heaven that still shall be, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Each day inflames me with its beauties more. | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Alone, though frailer, fonder every hour, | 11 | ˘/···/˘/˘/˘ |
| I muse on her--Now what, and where is she, | 10 | ·········· |
| And what the lovely veil which here she wore? | 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.