Nott
O beauteous hand! which robb'st me of my heart,And holdest all my life in little space;Hand! which their utmost effort and best artNature and Heaven alike have join'd to grace;O sister pearls of orient hue, ye fineAnd fairy fingers! to my wounds aloneCruel and cold, does Love awhile inclineIn my behalf, that naked ye are shown?O glove! most snowy, delicate, and dear,Which spotless ivory and fresh roses set,Where can on earth a sweeter spoil be met,Unless her fair veil thus reward us here?Inconstancy of human things! the theftLate won and dearly prized too soon from me is reft!
Words in this poem
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- reft n.
- A chink; a rift. See Rift. Rom. of R.
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-22.html, id L14749.
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 87%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 36% 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 heartA · spaceB · artB · graceA · fineA · aloneB · inclineB · shownA · dearC · setD · metC · hereD · theftC · reftD
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 beauteous hand! which robb'st me of my heart, | 11 | ·/˘˘······· |
| And holdest all my life in little space; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Hand! which their utmost effort and best art | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Nature and Heaven alike have join'd to grace; | 10 | /˘·/˘/···· |
| O sister pearls of orient hue, ye fine | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| And fairy fingers! to my wounds alone | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Cruel and cold, does Love awhile incline | 10 | /˘····˘/˘/ |
| In my behalf, that naked ye are shown? | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| O glove! most snowy, delicate, and dear, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Which spotless ivory and fresh roses set, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Where can on earth a sweeter spoil be met, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Unless her fair veil thus reward us here? | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Inconstancy of human things! the theft | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Late won and dearly prized too soon from me is reft! | 12 | ···/˘······· |
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.