Nott
One sweet and signal vengeance to obtainTo punish in a day my life's long crime,As one who, bent on harm, waits place and time,Love craftily took up his bow again.My virtue had retired to watch my heart,Thence of weak eyes the danger to repell,When momently a mortal blow there fellWhere blunted hitherto dropt every dart.And thus, o'erpower'd in that first attack,She had nor vigour left enough, nor roomEven to arm her for my pressing need,Nor to the steep and painful mountain backTo draw me, safe and scathless from that doom,Whence, though alas! too weak, she fain had freed.
Words in this poem
- craftily adv.
- With craft; artfully; cunningly. [See Crafty.]
- repell v. t.
- To drive back; to force to return; to check the advance of; to repulse as, to repel an enemy or an assailant. [L. repellere, repulsum; pref. re- re- + pellere to drive. See Pulse a beating, and cf. Repulse, Repeal.]
- hitherto adv.
- To this place; to a prescribed limit.
- vigour v. t.
- To invigorate. Feltham.
- scathless a.
- Unharmed. R. L. Stevenson.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
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-2.html, id L14462.
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%). 94% 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. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: grove / love, been / seen.
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 obtainA · crimeB · timeB · againA · heartA · repellB · fellB · dartA · attackC · roomD · needC · backD · doomC · freedD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| One sweet and signal vengeance to obtain | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| To punish in a day my life's long crime, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| As one who, bent on harm, waits place and time, | 10 | ·········· |
| Love craftily took up his bow again. | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| My virtue had retired to watch my heart, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Thence of weak eyes the danger to repell, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| When momently a mortal blow there fell | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Where blunted hitherto dropt every dart. | 10 | ·/˘/·/·/˘· |
| And thus, o'erpower'd in that first attack, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| She had nor vigour left enough, nor room | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Even to arm her for my pressing need, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Nor to the steep and painful mountain back | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To draw me, safe and scathless from that doom, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Whence, though alas! too weak, she fain had freed. | 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.