Soaring in Imagination to Heaven, He Meets Laura, and Is Happy
Fond fancy raised me to the spot, where straysShe, whom I seek but find on earth no more:There, fairer still and humbler than before,I saw her, in the third heaven's blessed maze.She took me by the hand, and "Thou shalt trace,If hope not errs," she said, "this happy shore:I, I am she, thy breast with slights who tore,And ere its evening closed my day's brief space.What human heart conceives, my joys exceed;Thee only I expect, and (what remainBelow) the charms, once objects of thy love."Why ceased she? Ah! my captive hand why freed?Such of her soft and hallow'd tones the chain,From that delightful heaven my soul could scarcely move.
Words in this poem
- humbler n.
- One who, or that which, humbles some one.
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- tore n.
- The dead grass that remains on mowing land in winter and spring. Mortimer. [Probably from the root of tear; cf. W. tór a break, cut, tóri to break, cut.]
- expect v. t.
- To wait for; to await. [L. expectatum, to look out for, await, expect; ex + out spectare to look at. See Spectacle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Soaring in Imagination to Heaven, He Meets Laura, and Is Happy 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, Soaring in Imagination to Heaven, He Meets Laura, and Is Happy, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/soaring-in-imagination-to-heaven-he-meets-laura-and-is-happy.html, id L14897.
Form and metre
Soaring in Imagination to Heaven, He Meets Laura, and Is Happy 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 88%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 14% 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 straysA · moreB · beforeB · mazeA · traceA · shoreB · toreB · spaceA · exceedC · remainD · loveC · freedD · chainC · moveD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fond fancy raised me to the spot, where strays | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| She, whom I seek but find on earth no more: | 10 | ·········· |
| There, fairer still and humbler than before, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I saw her, in the third heaven's blessed maze. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| She took me by the hand, and "Thou shalt trace, | 10 | ·········· |
| If hope not errs," she said, "this happy shore: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I, I am she, thy breast with slights who tore, | 10 | ·········· |
| And ere its evening closed my day's brief space. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What human heart conceives, my joys exceed; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Thee only I expect, and (what remain | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Below) the charms, once objects of thy love." | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Why ceased she? Ah! my captive hand why freed? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Such of her soft and hallow'd tones the chain, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| From that delightful heaven my soul could scarcely move. | 12 | ··˘/˘/···/˘· |
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.