Nott
The balmy airs that from yon leafy sprayMy fever'd brow with playful murmurs greet,Recall to my fond heart the fatal dayWhen Love his first wound dealt, so deep yet sweet,And gave me the fair face--in scorn awaySince turn'd, or hid by jealousy--to meet;The locks, which pearls and gems now oft array,Whose shining tints with finest gold compete,So sweetly on the wind were then display'd,Or gather'd in with such a graceful art,Their very thought with passion thrills my mind.Time since has twined them in more sober braid,And with a snare so powerful bound my heart,Death from its fetters only can unbind.
Words in this poem
- balmy a.
- Having the qualities of balm; odoriferous; aromatic; assuaging; soothing; refreshing; mild.
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-20.html, id L14744.
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 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% 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 sprayA · greetB · dayB · sweetA · awayA · meetB · arrayB · competeA · display'dC · artD · mindC · braidD · heartC · unbindD
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 balmy airs that from yon leafy spray | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| My fever'd brow with playful murmurs greet, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Recall to my fond heart the fatal day | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| When Love his first wound dealt, so deep yet sweet, | 10 | ·········· |
| And gave me the fair face--in scorn away | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Since turn'd, or hid by jealousy--to meet; | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| The locks, which pearls and gems now oft array, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Whose shining tints with finest gold compete, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| So sweetly on the wind were then display'd, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Or gather'd in with such a graceful art, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Their very thought with passion thrills my mind. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Time since has twined them in more sober braid, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And with a snare so powerful bound my heart, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Death from its fetters only can unbind. | 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.