Nott
While seem'd of all my faith the guerdon nigh,She, upon whom for mercy I relied,Was ravish'd from my doting desolate eye.O ruthless Death! O life unwelcome! thisPlunged me in deepest woe,And rudely crush'd my every hope of bliss;Against my will that keeps me here below,Who else would yearn to go,And join the sainted fair who left us late;Yet present every hourIn my heart's core there wields she her old power,And knows, whate'er my life, its every state!
Words in this poem
- guerdon n.
- A reward; requital; recompense; -- used in both a good and a bad sense. [OF. guerdon, guerredon, LL. widerdonum (influenced by L. donum gift, cf. Donation ), fr. OHG. widarl; widar again, against (G. wider wieder) + lon reward, G. lo]
- doting a.
- That dotes; silly; excessively fond.
- ruthless a.
- Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless.
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- sainted a.
- Consecrated; sacred; holy; pious.
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-35.html, id L14936.
Form and metre
Nott is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 A-ABCBCCDEED nighA · relied · eyeA · thisB · woeC · blissB · belowC · goC · lateD · hourE · powerE · stateD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| While seem'd of all my faith the guerdon nigh, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| She, upon whom for mercy I relied, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Was ravish'd from my doting desolate eye. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| O ruthless Death! O life unwelcome! this | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Plunged me in deepest woe, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And rudely crush'd my every hope of bliss; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Against my will that keeps me here below, | 10 | ·········· |
| Who else would yearn to go, | 6 | ······ |
| And join the sainted fair who left us late; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Yet present every hour | 8 | ·˘//˘˘/˘ |
| In my heart's core there wields she her old power, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And knows, whate'er my life, its every state! | 11 | ··˘˘/···/˘· |
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.