Madrigale IV
Who spurns thy rule, and, mocking all my care,'Mid two such foes, is safe and fancy free.Thou art well arm'd, 'mid flowers and verdure she,In simplest robe and natural tresses found,Against thee haughty still and harsh to me;I am thy thrall: but, if thy bow be sound,If yet one shaft be thine, in pity, takeVengeance upon her for our common sake.
Words in this poem
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Madrigale IV 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, Madrigale IV, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/madrigale-iv.html, id L14633.
Form and metre
Madrigale IV is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 -AABABCC care · freeA · sheA · foundB · meA · soundB · takeC · sakeC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who spurns thy rule, and, mocking all my care, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| 'Mid two such foes, is safe and fancy free. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thou art well arm'd, 'mid flowers and verdure she, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| In simplest robe and natural tresses found, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Against thee haughty still and harsh to me; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I am thy thrall: but, if thy bow be sound, | 10 | ·········· |
| If yet one shaft be thine, in pity, take | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Vengeance upon her for our common sake. | 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.