Macgregor
My mirror'd foe reflects, alas! so fairThose eyes which Heaven and Love have honour'd too!Yet not his charms thou dost enamour'd view,But all thine own, and they beyond compare:O lady! thou hast chased me at its prayerFrom thy heart's throne, where I so fondly grew;O wretched exile! though too well I knewA reign with thee I were unfit to share.But were I ever fix'd thy bosom's mate,A flattering mirror should not me supplant,And make thee scorn me in thy self-delight;Thou surely must recall Narcissus' fate,But if like him thy doom should thee enchant,What mead were worthy of a flower so bright?
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- enchant v. t.
- To charm by sorcery; to act on by enchantment; to get control of by magical words and rites. [F. enchanter, L. incantare to chant or utter a magic formula over or against one, to bewitch; in in, against + cantare to sing. See Chant, and cf. Incantation.]
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-9.html, id L14532.
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 90%). 100% 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 fairA · tooB · viewB · compareA · prayerA · grewB · knewB · shareA · mateC · supplantD · delightC · fateD · enchantC · brightD
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 mirror'd foe reflects, alas! so fair | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/·· |
| Those eyes which Heaven and Love have honour'd too! | 10 | ···/······ |
| Yet not his charms thou dost enamour'd view, | 10 | ·········· |
| But all thine own, and they beyond compare: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| O lady! thou hast chased me at its prayer | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| From thy heart's throne, where I so fondly grew; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| O wretched exile! though too well I knew | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| A reign with thee I were unfit to share. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| But were I ever fix'd thy bosom's mate, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A flattering mirror should not me supplant, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| And make thee scorn me in thy self-delight; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Thou surely must recall Narcissus' fate, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| But if like him thy doom should thee enchant, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| What mead were worthy of a flower so bright? | 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.