Macgregor
If the soft glance, the speech, both kind and wise,Of that beloved one can wound me so,And if, whene'er she lets her accents flow,Or even smiles, Love gains such victories;Alas! what should I do, were those dear eyes,Which now secure my life through weal and woe,From fault of mine, or evil fortune, slowTo shed on me their light in pity's guise?And if my trembling spirit groweth coldWhene'er I see change to her aspect spring,This fear is only born of trials old;(Woman by nature is a fickle thing,)And hence I know her heart hath power to holdBut a brief space Love's sweet imagining!
About this text
Macgregor 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, Macgregor, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/macgregor-17.html, id L14723.
Form and metre
Macgregor 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 86%). 92% 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. 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 wiseA · soB · flowB · victoriesA · eyesA · woeB · slowB · guiseA · coldC · springD · oldC · thingD · holdC · imaginingD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If the soft glance, the speech, both kind and wise, | 10 | ·········· |
| Of that beloved one can wound me so, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And if, whene'er she lets her accents flow, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Or even smiles, Love gains such victories; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Alas! what should I do, were those dear eyes, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Which now secure my life through weal and woe, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| From fault of mine, or evil fortune, slow | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To shed on me their light in pity's guise? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And if my trembling spirit groweth cold | 10 | ···/˘˘//˘· |
| Whene'er I see change to her aspect spring, | 11 | ········/·· |
| This fear is only born of trials old; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| (Woman by nature is a fickle thing,) | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| And hence I know her heart hath power to hold | 10 | ·······/·· |
| But a brief space Love's sweet imagining! | 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.