His Sorrow for the Illness of Laura Increases, Not Lessens, His Flame
The sovereign Lord, 'gainst whom of no availConcealment, or resistance is, or flight,My mind had kindled to a new delightBy his own amorous and ardent ail:Though his first blow, transfixing my best mailWere mortal sure, to push his triumph quiteHe took a shaft of sorrow in his right,So my soft heart on both sides to assail.A burning wound the one shed fire and flame,The other tears, which ever grief distils,Through eyes for your weak health that are as rills.But no relief from either fountain cameMy bosom's conflagration to abate,Nay, passion grew by very pity great.
Words in this poem
- conflagration n.
- A fire extending to many objects, or over a large space; a general burning.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
His Sorrow for the Illness of Laura Increases, Not Lessens, His Flame 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 Sorrow for the Illness of Laura Increases, Not Lessens, His Flame, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/his-sorrow-for-the-illness-of-laura-increases-not-lessens-hi.html, id L14804.
Form and metre
His Sorrow for the Illness of Laura Increases, Not Lessens, His Flame 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%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 36% 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 availA · flightB · delightB · ailA · mailA · quiteB · rightB · assailA · flameC · distilsD · rillsC · cameD · abateC · greatD
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 sovereign Lord, 'gainst whom of no avail | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Concealment, or resistance is, or flight, | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| My mind had kindled to a new delight | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| By his own amorous and ardent ail: | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Though his first blow, transfixing my best mail | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Were mortal sure, to push his triumph quite | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| He took a shaft of sorrow in his right, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So my soft heart on both sides to assail. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| A burning wound the one shed fire and flame, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| The other tears, which ever grief distils, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Through eyes for your weak health that are as rills. | 10 | ·········· |
| But no relief from either fountain came | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| My bosom's conflagration to abate, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Nay, passion grew by very pity great. | 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.