Past, Present, and Future Are Now Alike Painful to Him (Anon., Ox., 1795)
Life ever flies with course that nought may stay,Death follows after with gigantic stride;Ills past and present on my spirit prey,And future evils threat on every side:Whether I backward look or forward fare,A thousand ills my bosom's peace molest;And were it not that pity bids me spareMy nobler part, I from these thoughts would rest.If ever aught of sweet my heart has known,Remembrance wakes its charms, while, tempest tost,I mark the clouds that o'er my course still frown;E'en in the port I see the storm afar;Weary my pilot, mast and cable lost,And set for ever my fair polar star.
Words in this poem
- stride v. t.
- To walk with long steps, especially in a measured or pompous manner. [AS. stridan to stride, to strive; akin to LG. striden, OFries. strida to strive, D. strijden to strive, to contend, G. streiten, OHG. stritan; of uncertain orig]
- molest v. t.
- To trouble; to disturb; to render uneasy; to interfere with; to vex. [F. molester, L. molestare, fr. molestus troublesome, fr. moles a heavy mass, load, burden. See 3d Mole.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Past, Present, and Future Are Now Alike Painful to Him (Anon., Ox., 1795) 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, Past, Present, and Future Are Now Alike Painful to Him (Anon., Ox., 1795), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/past-present-and-future-are-now-alike-painful-to-him-anon-ox-1795.html, id L14846.
Form and metre
Past, Present, and Future Are Now Alike Painful to Him (Anon., Ox., 1795) 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 94%).
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 stayA · strideB · preyB · sideA · fareA · molestB · spareB · restA · knownC · tostD · frownC · afarD · lostC · starD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Life ever flies with course that nought may stay, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Death follows after with gigantic stride; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Ills past and present on my spirit prey, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And future evils threat on every side: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Whether I backward look or forward fare, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A thousand ills my bosom's peace molest; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And were it not that pity bids me spare | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| My nobler part, I from these thoughts would rest. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| If ever aught of sweet my heart has known, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Remembrance wakes its charms, while, tempest tost, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| I mark the clouds that o'er my course still frown; | 10 | ·········· |
| E'en in the port I see the storm afar; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Weary my pilot, mast and cable lost, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| And set for ever my fair polar star. | 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.