Penn
That window where my sun is ever seen,Dazzling and bright, and Nature's at the none;And that where still, when Boreas rude has blownIn the short days, the air thrills cold and keen:The stone where, at high noon, her seat has been,Pensive and parleying with herself alone:Haunts where her bright form has its shadow thrown,Or trod her fairy foot the carpet green:The cruel spot where first Love spoil'd my rest,And the new season which, from year to year,Opes, on this day, the old wound in my breast:The seraph face, the sweet words, chaste and dear,Which in my suffering heart are deep impress'd,All melt my fond eyes to the frequent tear.
Words in this poem
- boreas n.
- The north wind; -- usually a personification. [L. boreas, Gr. .]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Penn 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, Penn, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/penn.html, id L14607.
Form and metre
Penn 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 82%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 seenA · noneB · blownB · keenA · beenA · aloneB · thrownB · greenA · restC · yearD · breastC · dearD · impress'dC · tearD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That window where my sun is ever seen, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Dazzling and bright, and Nature's at the none; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And that where still, when Boreas rude has blown | 11 | ·····/˘˘··· |
| In the short days, the air thrills cold and keen: | 10 | ·········· |
| The stone where, at high noon, her seat has been, | 10 | ·········· |
| Pensive and parleying with herself alone: | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Haunts where her bright form has its shadow thrown, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Or trod her fairy foot the carpet green: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The cruel spot where first Love spoil'd my rest, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And the new season which, from year to year, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Opes, on this day, the old wound in my breast: | 10 | ·········· |
| The seraph face, the sweet words, chaste and dear, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Which in my suffering heart are deep impress'd, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| All melt my fond eyes to the frequent tear. | 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.