Macgregor
Alas! this changing world! my present joyWas once my grief's dark source, and now I feelMy sufferings pass'd were but my soul to healIts fearful warfare--peace's soft decoy.Poor human wishes! Hope, thou fragile toyTo lovers oft! my woe had met its seal,Had she but hearken'd to my love's appeal,Who, throned in heaven, hath fled this world's alloy.My blinded love, and yet more stubborn mind,Resistless urged me to my bosom's shame,And where my soul's destruction I had met:But blessed she who bade life's current findA holier course, who still'd my spirit's flameWith gentle hope that soul might triumph yet.
Words in this poem
- resistless a.
- Having no power to resist; making no opposition.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
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-26.html, id L14873.
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 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% 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 joyA · feelB · healB · decoyA · toyA · sealB · appealB · alloyA · mindC · shameD · metC · findD · flameC · yetD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alas! this changing world! my present joy | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Was once my grief's dark source, and now I feel | 10 | ·········· |
| My sufferings pass'd were but my soul to heal | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Its fearful warfare--peace's soft decoy. | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Poor human wishes! Hope, thou fragile toy | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| To lovers oft! my woe had met its seal, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Had she but hearken'd to my love's appeal, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Who, throned in heaven, hath fled this world's alloy. | 10 | ···/····/· |
| My blinded love, and yet more stubborn mind, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Resistless urged me to my bosom's shame, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| And where my soul's destruction I had met: | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| But blessed she who bade life's current find | 10 | ··˘····/˘· |
| A holier course, who still'd my spirit's flame | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| With gentle hope that soul might triumph yet. | 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.