Nott
If live the fair desire, Apollo, yetWhich fired thy spirit once on Peneus' shore,And if the bright hair loved so well of yoreIn lapse of years thou dost not now forget,From the long frost, from seasons rude and keen,Which last while hides itself thy kindling brow,Defend this consecrate and honour'd bough,Which snared thee erst, whose slave I since have been.And, by the virtue of the love so dearWhich soothed, sustain'd thee in that early strife,Our air from raw and lowering vapours clear:So shall we see our lady, to new lifeRestored, her seat upon the greensward take,Where her own graceful arms a sweet shade o'er her make.
Words in this poem
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- greensward n.
- Turf green with grass.
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-5.html, id L14517.
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%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 29% 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 · shoreB · yoreB · forgetA · keenA · browB · boughB · beenA · dearC · strifeD · clearC · lifeD · takeC · makeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If live the fair desire, Apollo, yet | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Which fired thy spirit once on Peneus' shore, | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| And if the bright hair loved so well of yore | 10 | ·········· |
| In lapse of years thou dost not now forget, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| From the long frost, from seasons rude and keen, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which last while hides itself thy kindling brow, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Defend this consecrate and honour'd bough, | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Which snared thee erst, whose slave I since have been. | 10 | ·········· |
| And, by the virtue of the love so dear | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Which soothed, sustain'd thee in that early strife, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Our air from raw and lowering vapours clear: | 10 | /····/˘/˘· |
| So shall we see our lady, to new life | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| Restored, her seat upon the greensward take, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Where her own graceful arms a sweet shade o'er her make. | 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.