To Love, on Laura Walking Abroad (Nott)
Here tarry, Love, our glory to behold;Nought in creation so sublime we trace;Ah! see what sweetness showers upon that face,Heaven's brightness to this earth those eyes unfold!See, with what magic art, pearls, purple, gold,That form transcendant, unexampled, grace:Beneath the shadowing hills observe her pace,Her glance replete with elegance untold!The verdant turf, and flowers of every hue,Clustering beneath yon aged holm-oak's gloom,For the sweet pressure of her fair feet sue;The orbs of fire that stud yon beauteous sky,Cheer'd by her presence and her smiles, assumeSuperior lustre and serenity.
Words in this poem
- unexampled a.
- Having no example or similar case; being without precedent; unprecedented; unparalleled.
- shadowing n.
- Shade, or gradation of light and color; shading. Feltham.
- replete a.
- Filled again; completely filled; full; charged; abounding. [L. repletus, p. p. of replere to fill again, fill up; pref. re- re- + plere to fill, akin to plenus full: cf. F. replet corpulent. See Plenty, Replenish.]
- untold a.
- Not told; not related; not revealed; as, untold secrets.
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Love, on Laura Walking Abroad (Nott) 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, To Love, on Laura Walking Abroad (Nott), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/merivale-2.html, id L14737.
Form and metre
To Love, on Laura Walking Abroad (Nott) 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 83%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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 beholdA · traceB · faceB · unfoldA · goldA · graceB · paceB · untoldA · hueC · gloomD · sueC · skyD · assumeC · serenityD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here tarry, Love, our glory to behold; | 10 | ·/˘·//˘·˘/ |
| Nought in creation so sublime we trace; | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Ah! see what sweetness showers upon that face, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Heaven's brightness to this earth those eyes unfold! | 11 | /˘/˘·····˘/ |
| See, with what magic art, pearls, purple, gold, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That form transcendant, unexampled, grace: | 10 | ········˘· |
| Beneath the shadowing hills observe her pace, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Her glance replete with elegance untold! | 10 | ··˘/·/˘˘˘/ |
| The verdant turf, and flowers of every hue, | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| Clustering beneath yon aged holm-oak's gloom, | 10 | /˘˘······· |
| For the sweet pressure of her fair feet sue; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The orbs of fire that stud yon beauteous sky, | 11 | ···/···/˘˘· |
| Cheer'd by her presence and her smiles, assume | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Superior lustre and serenity. | 11 | ˘/˘˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
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.