Nott
My laurell'd hope! and thou, Colonna proud!Your broken strength can shelter me no more!Nor Boreas, Auster, Indus, Afric's shore,Can give me that, whose loss my soul hath bow'd:My step exulting, and my joy avow'd,Death now hath quench'd with ye, my heart's twin store;Nor earth's high rule, nor gems, nor gold's bright ore,Can e'er bring back what once my heart endow'dBut if this grief my destiny hath will'd,What else can I oppose but tearful eyes,A sorrowing bosom, and a spirit quell'd?O life! whose vista seems so brightly fill'd,A sunny breath, and that exhaling, diesThe hope, oft, many watchful years have swell'd.
Words in this poem
- boreas n.
- The north wind; -- usually a personification. [L. boreas, Gr. .]
- auster n.
- The south wind. [L. auster a dry, hot, south wind; the south.]
- exulting a.
- Rejoicing triumphantly or exceedingly; exultant.
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- vista n.
- A view; especially, a view through or between intervening objects, as trees; a view or prospect through an avenue, or the like; hence, the trees or other objects that form the avenue. [It., sight, view, fr. vedere, p. p. visto, veduto, to see, fr. L. videre, visum. See View, Vision.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
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-29.html, id L14842.
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%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 14% 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 proudA · moreB · shoreB · bow'dA · avow'dA · storeB · oreB · endow'dA · will'dC · eyesD · quell'dC · fill'dD · diesC · swell'dD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My laurell'd hope! and thou, Colonna proud! | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Your broken strength can shelter me no more! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Nor Boreas, Auster, Indus, Afric's shore, | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘··· |
| Can give me that, whose loss my soul hath bow'd: | 10 | ·········· |
| My step exulting, and my joy avow'd, | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Death now hath quench'd with ye, my heart's twin store; | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor earth's high rule, nor gems, nor gold's bright ore, | 10 | ·········· |
| Can e'er bring back what once my heart endow'd | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But if this grief my destiny hath will'd, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| What else can I oppose but tearful eyes, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| A sorrowing bosom, and a spirit quell'd? | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘··/· |
| O life! whose vista seems so brightly fill'd, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A sunny breath, and that exhaling, dies | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| The hope, oft, many watchful years have swell'd. | 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.