Nott
O bright and happy flowers and herbage blest,On which my lady treads!--O favour'd plain,That hears her accents sweet, and can retainThe traces by her fairy steps impress'd!--Pure shrubs, with tender verdure newly dress'd,--Pale amorous violets,--leafy woods, whose reignThy sun's bright rays transpierce, and thus sustainYour lofty stature, and umbrageous crest;--O thou, fair country, and thou, crystal stream,Which bathes her countenance and sparkling eyes,Stealing fresh lustre from their living beam;How do I envy thee these precious ties!Thy rocky shores will soon be taught to gleamWith the same flame that burns in all my sighs.
Words in this poem
- transpierce v. t.
- To pierce through; to penetrate; to permeate; to pass through. [Pref. trans- + pierce: cf. F. transpercer.]
- umbrageous a.
- Forming or affording a shade; shady; shaded; as, umbrageous trees or foliage. [Cf. F. ombraqeux shy, skittish, suspicious, in OF. also, shady. See Umbrage.]
- 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
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, Nott, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/nott-16.html, id L14692.
Form and metre
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 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% 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 blestA · plainB · retainB · impress'dA · dress'dA · reignB · sustainB · crestA · streamC · eyesD · beamC · tiesD · gleamC · sighsD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O bright and happy flowers and herbage blest, | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| On which my lady treads!--O favour'd plain, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That hears her accents sweet, and can retain | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The traces by her fairy steps impress'd!-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Pure shrubs, with tender verdure newly dress'd,-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Pale amorous violets,--leafy woods, whose reign | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Thy sun's bright rays transpierce, and thus sustain | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Your lofty stature, and umbrageous crest;-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| O thou, fair country, and thou, crystal stream, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Which bathes her countenance and sparkling eyes, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Stealing fresh lustre from their living beam; | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| How do I envy thee these precious ties! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Thy rocky shores will soon be taught to gleam | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| With the same flame that burns in all my sighs. | 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.