She Unites in Herself the Highest Excellences of Virtue and Beauty
High birth in humble life, reserved yet kind,On youth's gay flower ripe fruits of age and rare,A virtuous heart, therewith a lofty mind,A happy spirit in a pensive air;Her planet, nay, heaven's king, has fitly shrinedAll gifts and graces in this lady fair,True honour, purest praises, worth refined,Above what rapt dreams of best poets are.Virtue and Love so rich in her unite,With natural beauty dignified address,Gestures that still a silent grace express,And in her eyes I know not what strange light,That makes the noonday dark, the dusk night clear,Bitter the sweet, and e'en sad absence dear.
Words in this poem
- virtuous a.
- Possessing or exhibiting virtue. Specifically: -- (a) Exhibiting manly courage and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [OE. vertuous, OF. vertuos, vertuous, F. vertueux, fr. L. Virtuous. See Virtue, and cf. Virtuoso.]
- therewith adv.
- With that or this.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- noonday n.
- Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
She Unites in Herself the Highest Excellences of Virtue and Beauty 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, She Unites in Herself the Highest Excellences of Virtue and Beauty, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/she-unites-in-herself-the-highest-excellences-of-virtue-and-.html, id L14768.
Form and metre
She Unites in Herself the Highest Excellences of Virtue and Beauty 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 85%). 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 kindA · rareB · mindB · airA · shrinedA · fairB · refinedB · areA · uniteC · addressD · expressC · lightD · clearC · dearD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| High birth in humble life, reserved yet kind, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| On youth's gay flower ripe fruits of age and rare, | 10 | ···/······ |
| A virtuous heart, therewith a lofty mind, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| A happy spirit in a pensive air; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Her planet, nay, heaven's king, has fitly shrined | 11 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘· |
| All gifts and graces in this lady fair, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| True honour, purest praises, worth refined, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Above what rapt dreams of best poets are. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Virtue and Love so rich in her unite, | 10 | /˘······/· |
| With natural beauty dignified address, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Gestures that still a silent grace express, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| And in her eyes I know not what strange light, | 10 | ·········· |
| That makes the noonday dark, the dusk night clear, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Bitter the sweet, and e'en sad absence dear. | 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.