Nott
The gentle air, which brightens each green hill,Wakening the flowers that paint this bowery glade,I recognise it by its soft breath still,My sorrow and renown which long has made:Again where erst my sick heart shelter sought,From my dear native Tuscan air I flee:That light may cheer my dark and troubled thought,I seek my sun, and hope to-day to see.That sun so great and genial sweetness brings,That Love compels me to his beams again,Which then so dazzle me that flight is vain:I ask for my escape not arms, but wings:Heaven by this light condemns me sure to die,Which from afar consumes, and burns when nigh.
Words in this poem
- wakening n.
- The act of one who wakens; esp., the act of ceasing to sleep; an awakening.
- bowery a.
- Shading, like a bower; full of bowers.
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- recognise v. t.
- To know again; to perceive the identity of, with a person or thing previously known; to recover or recall knowledge of. [From Recognizance; see Cognition, and cf. Reconnoiter.]
- genial a.
- Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive. [L. genialis: cf. OF. genial. See Genius.]
- dazzle v. t.
- To overpower with light; to confuse the sight of by brilliance of light. [Freq. of daze.]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
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-19.html, id L14741.
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%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 hillA · gladeB · stillB · madeA · soughtA · fleeB · thoughtB · seeA · bringsC · againD · vainC · wingsD · dieC · nighD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The gentle air, which brightens each green hill, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Wakening the flowers that paint this bowery glade, | 10 | /˘·/···/˘· |
| I recognise it by its soft breath still, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| My sorrow and renown which long has made: | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Again where erst my sick heart shelter sought, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| From my dear native Tuscan air I flee: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| That light may cheer my dark and troubled thought, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I seek my sun, and hope to-day to see. | 10 | ·········· |
| That sun so great and genial sweetness brings, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| That Love compels me to his beams again, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Which then so dazzle me that flight is vain: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I ask for my escape not arms, but wings: | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Heaven by this light condemns me sure to die, | 10 | /···˘/···· |
| Which from afar consumes, and burns when nigh. | 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.