Nott
The spring returns, with all her smiling train;The wanton Zephyrs breathe along the bowers,The glistening dew-drops hang on bending flowers,And tender green light-shadows o'er the plain:And thou, sweet Philomel, renew'st thy strain,Breathing thy wild notes to the midnight grove:All nature feels the kindling fire of love,The vital force of spring's returning reign.But not to me returns the cheerful spring!O heart! that know'st no period to thy grief,Nor Nature's smiles to thee impart relief,Nor change of mind the varying seasons bring:She, she is gone! All that e'er pleased before,Adieu! ye birds ye flowers, ye fields, that charm no more!
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-33.html, id L14909.
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 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 trainA · bowersB · flowersB · plainA · strainA · groveB · loveB · reignA · springC · griefD · reliefC · bringD · beforeC · moreD
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 spring returns, with all her smiling train; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| The wanton Zephyrs breathe along the bowers, | 11 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| The glistening dew-drops hang on bending flowers, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘/ |
| And tender green light-shadows o'er the plain: | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| And thou, sweet Philomel, renew'st thy strain, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Breathing thy wild notes to the midnight grove: | 10 | /˘·····/·· |
| All nature feels the kindling fire of love, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| The vital force of spring's returning reign. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| But not to me returns the cheerful spring! | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| O heart! that know'st no period to thy grief, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Nor Nature's smiles to thee impart relief, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| Nor change of mind the varying seasons bring: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| She, she is gone! All that e'er pleased before, | 10 | ·········· |
| Adieu! ye birds ye flowers, ye fields, that charm no more! | 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.