On Laura Putting Her Hand Before Her Eyes While He Was Gazing on Her
On the fair face for which I long and sighMine eyes were fasten'd with desire intense.When, to my fond thoughts, Love, in best reply,Her honour'd hand uplifting, shut me thence.My heart there caught--as fish a fair hook by,Or as a young bird on a limed fence--For good deeds follow from example high,To truth directed not its busied sense.But of its one desire my vision reft,As dreamingly, soon oped itself a way,Which closed, its bliss imperfect had been left:My soul between those rival glories lay,Fill'd with a heavenly and new delight,Whose strange surpassing sweets engross'd it quite.
Words in this poem
- reft n.
- A chink; a rift. See Rift. Rom. of R.
- dreamingly adv.
- In a dreamy manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Laura Putting Her Hand Before Her Eyes While He Was Gazing on Her 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, On Laura Putting Her Hand Before Her Eyes While He Was Gazing on Her, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/on-laura-putting-her-hand-before-her-eyes-while-he-was-gazin.html, id L14826.
Form and metre
On Laura Putting Her Hand Before Her Eyes While He Was Gazing on Her 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%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% 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 sighA · intenseB · replyB · thenceA · byA · fenceB · highB · senseA · reftC · wayD · leftC · layD · delightC · quiteD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| On the fair face for which I long and sigh | 10 | ·········· |
| Mine eyes were fasten'd with desire intense. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| When, to my fond thoughts, Love, in best reply, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Her honour'd hand uplifting, shut me thence. | 10 | ····/·˘··· |
| My heart there caught--as fish a fair hook by, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or as a young bird on a limed fence-- | 10 | ········˘· |
| For good deeds follow from example high, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| To truth directed not its busied sense. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| But of its one desire my vision reft, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| As dreamingly, soon oped itself a way, | 10 | ·/˘˘··˘/·· |
| Which closed, its bliss imperfect had been left: | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| My soul between those rival glories lay, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Fill'd with a heavenly and new delight, | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| Whose strange surpassing sweets engross'd it quite. | 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.