Macgregor
A form I saw with secret awe, nor ken I what it warns;Pure as the snow, a gentle doe it seem'd, with silver horns:Erect she stood, close by a wood, between two running streams;And brightly shone the morning sun upon that land of dreams!The pictured hind fancy design'd glowing with love and hope;Graceful she stepp'd, but distant kept, like the timid antelope;Playful, yet coy, with secret joy her image fill'd my soul;And o'er the sense soft influence of sweet oblivion stole.Gold I beheld and emerald on the collar that she wore;Words, too--but theirs were characters of legendary lore."Caesar's decree hath made me free; and through his solemn charge,Untouch'd by men o'er hill and glen I wander here at large."The sun had now, with radiant brow, climb'd his meridian throne,Yet still mine eye untiringly gazed on that lovely one.A voice was heard--quick disappear'd my dream--the spell was broken.Then came distress: to the consciousness of life I had awoken.
Words in this poem
- pictured a.
- Furnished with pictures; represented by a picture or pictures; as, a pictured scene.
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
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-18.html, id L14734.
Form and metre
Macgregor is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGGG warnsA · hornsA · streamsB · dreamsB · hopeC · antelopeC · soulD · stoleD · woreE · loreE · chargeF · largeF · throneG · oneG · brokenG · awokenG
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A form I saw with secret awe, nor ken I what it warns; | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| Pure as the snow, a gentle doe it seem'd, with silver horns: | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| Erect she stood, close by a wood, between two running streams; | 14 | ˘/·········/˘· |
| And brightly shone the morning sun upon that land of dreams! | 14 | ·/˘··/˘······· |
| The pictured hind fancy design'd glowing with love and hope; | 14 | ·/˘·/˘˘//˘···· |
| Graceful she stepp'd, but distant kept, like the timid antelope; | 15 | /˘···/˘···/˘/˘· |
| Playful, yet coy, with secret joy her image fill'd my soul; | 14 | /˘···/˘··/˘··· |
| And o'er the sense soft influence of sweet oblivion stole. | 13 | ·····/˘··˘/˘· |
| Gold I beheld and emerald on the collar that she wore; | 14 | ··˘/·/˘··/˘··· |
| Words, too--but theirs were characters of legendary lore. | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘·˘· |
| "Caesar's decree hath made me free; and through his solemn charge, | 14 | /˘˘/·······/˘· |
| Untouch'd by men o'er hill and glen I wander here at large." | 14 | ˘/·······/˘··· |
| The sun had now, with radiant brow, climb'd his meridian throne, | 14 | ·····/˘···˘/˘· |
| Yet still mine eye untiringly gazed on that lovely one. | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| A voice was heard--quick disappear'd my dream--the spell was broken. | 15 | ······˘/·····/˘ |
| Then came distress: to the consciousness of life I had awoken. | 15 | ··˘/··/˘······· |
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.