Sonnet CCXIV
Uncertain of my state, I weep and sing,I hope and tremble, and with rhymes and sighsI ease my load, while Love his utmost triesHow worse my sore afflicted heart to sting.Will her sweet seraph face again e'er bringTheir former light to these despairing eyes.(What to expect, alas! or how advise)Or must eternal grief my bosom wring?For heaven, which justly it deserves to win,It cares not what on earth may be their fate,Whose sun it was, where centred their sole gaze.Such terror, so perpetual warfare in,Changed from my former self, I live of lateAs one who midway doubts, and fears and strays.
Words in this poem
- despairing a.
- Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless.
- expect v. t.
- To wait for; to await. [L. expectatum, to look out for, await, expect; ex + out spectare to look at. See Spectacle.]
- midway n.
- The middle of the way or distance; a middle way or course.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CCXIV 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, Sonnet CCXIV, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/sonnet-ccxiv.html, id L14819.
Form and metre
Sonnet CCXIV 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 92%). 100% 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 singA · sighsB · triesB · stingA · bringA · eyesB · adviseB · wringA · winC · fateD · gazeC · inD · lateC · straysD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Uncertain of my state, I weep and sing, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| I hope and tremble, and with rhymes and sighs | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I ease my load, while Love his utmost tries | 10 | ·······/·· |
| How worse my sore afflicted heart to sting. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Will her sweet seraph face again e'er bring | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Their former light to these despairing eyes. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| (What to expect, alas! or how advise) | 10 | ··˘/˘/··˘/ |
| Or must eternal grief my bosom wring? | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| For heaven, which justly it deserves to win, | 10 | ·/·/˘·˘/·· |
| It cares not what on earth may be their fate, | 10 | ·········· |
| Whose sun it was, where centred their sole gaze. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Such terror, so perpetual warfare in, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/·· |
| Changed from my former self, I live of late | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As one who midway doubts, and fears and strays. | 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.