Morehead
Those eyes whose living lustre shed the heatOf bright meridian day; the heavenly mouldOf that angelic form; the hands, the feet,The taper arms, the crisped locks of gold;Charms that the sweets of paradise enfold;The radiant lightning of her angel-smile,And every grace that could the sense beguileAre now a pile of ashes, deadly cold!And yet I bear to drag this cumbrous chain,That weighs my soul to earth--to bliss or painAlike insensible:--her anchor lost,The frail dismantled bark, all tempest-toss'd,Surveys no port of comfort--closed the sceneOf life's delusive joys;--and dry the Muse's vein.
Words in this poem
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- enfold v. t.
- To infold. See Infold.
- cumbrous a.
- Rendering action or motion difficult or toilsome; serving to obstruct or hinder; burdensome; clogging.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Morehead 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, Morehead, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/morehead-3.html, id L14878.
Form and metre
Morehead 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 92%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% 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 heatA · mouldB · feetB · goldA · enfoldA · smileB · beguileB · coldA · chainC · painD · lostC · toss'dD · sceneC · veinD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Those eyes whose living lustre shed the heat | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Of bright meridian day; the heavenly mould | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of that angelic form; the hands, the feet, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The taper arms, the crisped locks of gold; | 10 | ·/˘···˘··· |
| Charms that the sweets of paradise enfold; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The radiant lightning of her angel-smile, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And every grace that could the sense beguile | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Are now a pile of ashes, deadly cold! | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And yet I bear to drag this cumbrous chain, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That weighs my soul to earth--to bliss or pain | 10 | ·········· |
| Alike insensible:--her anchor lost, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| The frail dismantled bark, all tempest-toss'd, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Surveys no port of comfort--closed the scene | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Of life's delusive joys;--and dry the Muse's vein. | 12 | ··˘/˘····/˘· |
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.