Past, Present, and Future Are Now Alike Painful to Him
Life passes quick, nor will a moment stay,And death with hasty journeys still draws near;And all the present joins my soul to tear,With every past and every future day:And to look back or forward, so does preyOn this distracted breast, that sure I swear,Did I not to myself some pity bear,I were e'en now from all these thoughts away.Much do I muse on what of pleasures pastThis woe-worn heart has known; meanwhile, t' opposeMy passage, loud the winds around me roar.I see my bliss in port, and torn my mastAnd sails, my pilot faint with toil, and thoseFair lights, that wont to guide me, now no more.
Words in this poem
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Past, Present, and Future Are Now Alike Painful to Him 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, 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.html, id L14845.
Form and metre
Past, Present, and Future Are Now Alike Painful to Him 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 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% 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 stayA · nearB · tearB · dayA · preyA · swearB · bearB · awayA · pastC · opposeD · roarC · mastD · thoseC · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Life passes quick, nor will a moment stay, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And death with hasty journeys still draws near; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And all the present joins my soul to tear, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With every past and every future day: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And to look back or forward, so does prey | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| On this distracted breast, that sure I swear, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Did I not to myself some pity bear, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| I were e'en now from all these thoughts away. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Much do I muse on what of pleasures past | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| This woe-worn heart has known; meanwhile, t' oppose | 11 | ······/··˘/ |
| My passage, loud the winds around me roar. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I see my bliss in port, and torn my mast | 10 | ·········· |
| And sails, my pilot faint with toil, and those | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Fair lights, that wont to guide me, now no more. | 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.