Nott
Ashamed at times that I am silent, yet,Lady, though your rare beauties prompt my rhyme,When first I saw thee I recall the timeSuch as again no other can be met.But, with such burthen on my shoulders set.My mind, its frailty feeling, cannot climb,And shrinks alike from polish'd and sublime,While my vain utterance frozen terrors let.Often already have I sought to sing,But midway in my breast the voice was stay'd,For ah! so high what praise may ever spring?And oft have I the tender verse essay'd,But still in vain; pen, hand, and intellectIn the first effort conquer'd are and check'd.
Words in this poem
- frailty n.
- The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally, frailness; infirmity; weakness of resolution; liableness to be deceived or seduced. [OE. frelete, freilte, OF. fraileté, fr. L. fragilitas. See Frail, a., and cf. Fragility.]
- midway n.
- The middle of the way or distance; a middle way or course.
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-3.html, id L14496.
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 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 yetA · rhymeB · timeB · metA · setA · climbB · sublimeB · letA · singC · stay'dD · springC · essay'dD · intellectC · check'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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ashamed at times that I am silent, yet, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Lady, though your rare beauties prompt my rhyme, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| When first I saw thee I recall the time | 10 | ······/··· |
| Such as again no other can be met. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| But, with such burthen on my shoulders set. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| My mind, its frailty feeling, cannot climb, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| And shrinks alike from polish'd and sublime, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| While my vain utterance frozen terrors let. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Often already have I sought to sing, | 10 | /˘˘/˘····· |
| But midway in my breast the voice was stay'd, | 10 | ·/········ |
| For ah! so high what praise may ever spring? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And oft have I the tender verse essay'd, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But still in vain; pen, hand, and intellect | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In the first effort conquer'd are and check'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.