Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino
Ways apt and new to sing of love I'd find,Forcing from her hard heart full many a sigh,And re-enkindle in her frozen mindDesires a thousand, passionate and high;O'er her fair face would see each swift change pass,See her fond eyes at length where pity reigns,As one who sorrows when too late, alas!For his own error and another's pains;See the fresh roses edging that fair snowMove with her breath, that ivory descried,Which turns to marble him who sees it near;See all, for which in this brief life belowMyself I weary not but rather prideThat Heaven for later times has kept me here.
About this text
Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino 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, Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/reply-to-a-sonnet-of-jacopo-da-lentino.html, id L14647.
Form and metre
Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino 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 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 findA · sighB · mindB · highA · passA · reignsB · alasB · painsA · snowC · descriedD · nearC · belowD · prideC · hereD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ways apt and new to sing of love I'd find, | 10 | ·········· |
| Forcing from her hard heart full many a sigh, | 10 | /˘·····/·· |
| And re-enkindle in her frozen mind | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Desires a thousand, passionate and high; | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘˘·· |
| O'er her fair face would see each swift change pass, | 10 | ·········· |
| See her fond eyes at length where pity reigns, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As one who sorrows when too late, alas! | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| For his own error and another's pains; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| See the fresh roses edging that fair snow | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Move with her breath, that ivory descried, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Which turns to marble him who sees it near; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| See all, for which in this brief life below | 10 | ·········· |
| Myself I weary not but rather pride | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| That Heaven for later times has kept me here. | 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.