Macgregor
My tameless will doth recklessly pursueHer, who, unshackled by love's heavy chain,Flies swiftly from its chase, whilst I in vainMy fetter'd journey pantingly renew;The safer track I offer to its view,But hopeless is my power to restrain,It rides regardless of the spur or rein;Love makes it scorn the hand that would subdue.The triumph won, the bridle all its own,Without one curb I stand within its power,And my destruction helplessly presage:It guides me to that laurel, ever known,To all who seek the healing of its flower,To aggravate the wound it should assuage.
Words in this poem
- tameless a.
- Incapable of being tamed; wild; untamed; untamable. Bp. Hall.
- pantingly adv.
- With palpitation or rapid breathing.
- aggravate v. t.
- To make heavy or heavier; to add to; to increase. [L. aggravatus, p. p. of aggravare. See Aggrieve.]
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.html, id L14470.
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%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 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 pursueA · chainB · vainB · renewA · viewA · restrainB · reinB · subdueA · ownC · powerD · presageC · knownD · flowerC · assuageD
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 tameless will doth recklessly pursue | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| Her, who, unshackled by love's heavy chain, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Flies swiftly from its chase, whilst I in vain | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| My fetter'd journey pantingly renew; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| The safer track I offer to its view, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But hopeless is my power to restrain, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| It rides regardless of the spur or rein; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Love makes it scorn the hand that would subdue. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The triumph won, the bridle all its own, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Without one curb I stand within its power, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And my destruction helplessly presage: | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| It guides me to that laurel, ever known, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To all who seek the healing of its flower, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| To aggravate the wound it should assuage. | 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.