Morehead
Dark hour, last moment of that fatal day!Stars which to beggar me of bliss combined!O faithful glance, too well which seem'dst to sayFarewell to me, farewell to peace of mind!Awaken'd now, my losses I survey:Alas! I fondly thought--thoughts weak and blind!--That absence would take part, not all, away;How many hopes it scatter'd to the wind.Heaven had already doom'd it otherwise,To quench for ever my life's genial light,And in her sad sweet face 'twas written so.Surely a veil was placed around mine eyes,That blinded me to all before my sight,And sank at once my life in deepest woe.
Words in this poem
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- genial a.
- Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive. [L. genialis: cf. OF. genial. See Genius.]
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-4.html, id L14945.
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 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 dayA · combinedB · sayB · mindA · surveyA · blindB · awayB · windA · otherwiseC · lightD · soC · eyesD · sightC · woeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dark hour, last moment of that fatal day! | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| Stars which to beggar me of bliss combined! | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| O faithful glance, too well which seem'dst to say | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Farewell to me, farewell to peace of mind! | 10 | ·/···/···· |
| Awaken'd now, my losses I survey: | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Alas! I fondly thought--thoughts weak and blind!-- | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| That absence would take part, not all, away; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| How many hopes it scatter'd to the wind. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Heaven had already doom'd it otherwise, | 10 | /·˘/˘··/˘· |
| To quench for ever my life's genial light, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And in her sad sweet face 'twas written so. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Surely a veil was placed around mine eyes, | 10 | /˘········ |
| That blinded me to all before my sight, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And sank at once my life in deepest woe. | 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.