Macgregor
My thoughts were wont with sentiment so sweetTo meditate their object in my breast--Perhaps her sympathies my wishes meetWith gentlest pity, seeing me distress'd:Nor when removed to that her sacred restThe present life changed for that blest retreat,Vanish'd in air my former visions fleet,My hopes, my tears, in vain to her address'd.O lovely miracle! O favour'd mind!Beauty beyond example high and rare,So soon return'd from us to whence it came!There the immortal wreaths her temples bind;The sacred palm is hers: on earth so fairWho shone by her own virtues and my flame.
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-29.html, id L14885.
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 88%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% 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 sweetA · breastB · meetB · distress'dA · restA · retreatB · fleetB · address'dA · mindC · rareD · cameC · bindD · fairC · flameD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My thoughts were wont with sentiment so sweet | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| To meditate their object in my breast-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Perhaps her sympathies my wishes meet | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘·/˘· |
| With gentlest pity, seeing me distress'd: | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘/·˘/ |
| Nor when removed to that her sacred rest | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| The present life changed for that blest retreat, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Vanish'd in air my former visions fleet, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| My hopes, my tears, in vain to her address'd. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| O lovely miracle! O favour'd mind! | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Beauty beyond example high and rare, | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| So soon return'd from us to whence it came! | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| There the immortal wreaths her temples bind; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| The sacred palm is hers: on earth so fair | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Who shone by her own virtues and my flame. | 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.