Macgregor
My love and grief compell'd me to proclaimMy heart's lament, and urged me to conveyThat, were it true, of her I should not sayWho woke alike my song and bosom's flame.For I should comfort find, 'mid this world's shame,To mark her soul's beatified array,To think that He who here had own'd its sway,Doth now within his home its presence claim.And true I comfort find--myself resign'd,I would not woo her back to earthly gloom;Oh! rather let me die, or live still lone!My mental eye, that holds her there enshrined,Now paints her wing'd, bright with celestial bloom,Prostrate beneath our mutual Heaven's throne.
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
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-41.html, id L14971.
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 93%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 proclaimA · conveyB · sayB · flameA · shameA · arrayB · swayB · claimA · resign'dC · gloomD · loneC · enshrinedD · bloomC · throneD
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 love and grief compell'd me to proclaim | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| My heart's lament, and urged me to convey | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| That, were it true, of her I should not say | 10 | ·········· |
| Who woke alike my song and bosom's flame. | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| For I should comfort find, 'mid this world's shame, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To mark her soul's beatified array, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| To think that He who here had own'd its sway, | 10 | ·········· |
| Doth now within his home its presence claim. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And true I comfort find--myself resign'd, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘/ |
| I would not woo her back to earthly gloom; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Oh! rather let me die, or live still lone! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| My mental eye, that holds her there enshrined, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Now paints her wing'd, bright with celestial bloom, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Prostrate beneath our mutual Heaven's throne. | 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.