Macgregor
A sovereign nature,--an exalted mind,--A soul proud--sleepless--with a lynx's eye,--An instant foresight,--thought as towering high,E'en as the heart in which they are enshrined:A bright assembly on that day combinedEach other in his honour to outvie,When 'mid the fair his judgment did descryThat sweet perfection all to her resign'd.Unmindful of her rival sisterhood,He motion'd silently his preference,And fondly welcomed her, that humblest one:So pure a kiss he gave, that all who stood,Though fair, rejoiced in beauty's recompense:By that strange act nay heart was quite undone!
Words in this poem
- towering a.
- Very high; elevated; rising aloft; as, a towering height.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- outvie v. t.
- To exceed in vying.
- descry
- , Discovery or view, as of an army seen at a distance.
- sisterhood n.
- The state or relation of being a sister; the office or duty of a sister. [Sister + hood.]
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
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-24.html, id L14802.
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 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end 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 mindA · eyeB · highB · enshrinedA · combinedA · outvieB · descryB · resign'dA · sisterhoodC · preferenceD · oneC · stoodD · recompenseC · undoneD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A sovereign nature,--an exalted mind,-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| A soul proud--sleepless--with a lynx's eye,-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| An instant foresight,--thought as towering high, | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| E'en as the heart in which they are enshrined: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| A bright assembly on that day combined | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Each other in his honour to outvie, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| When 'mid the fair his judgment did descry | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That sweet perfection all to her resign'd. | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Unmindful of her rival sisterhood, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| He motion'd silently his preference, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| And fondly welcomed her, that humblest one: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| So pure a kiss he gave, that all who stood, | 10 | ·········· |
| Though fair, rejoiced in beauty's recompense: | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| By that strange act nay heart was quite undone! | 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.