Nott
Oft have I meant my passion to declare,When fancy read compliance in her eyes;And oft with courteous speech, with love-lorn sighs,Have wish'd to soften my obdurate fair:But let that face one look of anger wear,The intention fades; for all that fate supplies,Or good, or ill, all, all that I can prize,My life, my death, Love trusts to her dear care.E'en I can scarcely hear my amorous moan,So much my voice by passion is confined;So faint, so timid are my accents grown!Ah! now the force of love I plainly see;What can the tongue, or what the impassion'd mind?He that could speak his love, ne'er loved like me.
Words in this poem
- lorn a.
- Lost; undone; ruined. [Strong p. p. of Lose. See Lose, Forlorn.]
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-17.html, id L14705.
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 85%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables.
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 declareA · eyesB · sighsB · fairA · wearA · suppliesB · prizeB · careA · moanC · confinedD · grownC · seeD · mindC · meD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oft have I meant my passion to declare, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| When fancy read compliance in her eyes; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| And oft with courteous speech, with love-lorn sighs, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Have wish'd to soften my obdurate fair: | 10 | ···/˘·/˘˘· |
| But let that face one look of anger wear, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The intention fades; for all that fate supplies, | 11 | ·˘/˘·····˘/ |
| Or good, or ill, all, all that I can prize, | 10 | ·········· |
| My life, my death, Love trusts to her dear care. | 10 | ·········· |
| E'en I can scarcely hear my amorous moan, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| So much my voice by passion is confined; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| So faint, so timid are my accents grown! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Ah! now the force of love I plainly see; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| What can the tongue, or what the impassion'd mind? | 11 | ·······˘/˘· |
| He that could speak his love, ne'er loved like me. | 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.