Sonnet CLVI
My bark, deep laden with oblivion, ridesO'er boisterous waves, through winter's midnight gloom,'Twixt Scylla and Charybdis, while, in roomOf pilot, Love, mine enemy, presides;At every oar a guilty fancy bides,Holding at nought the tempest and the tomb;A moist eternal wind the sails consume,Of sighs, of hopes, and of desire besides.A shower of tears, a fog of chill disdainBathes and relaxes the o'er-wearied cords,With error and with ignorance entwined;My two loved lights their wonted aid restrain;Reason or Art, storm-quell'd, no help affords,Nor hope remains the wish'd-for port to find.
Words in this poem
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- boisterous a.
- Rough or rude; unbending; unyielding; strong; powerful. [OE. boistous; of uncertain origin; cf. W. bwyst wild, savage, wildness, ferocity, bwystus ferocious.]
- charybdis n.
- A dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Sicily opposite Scylla on the Italian coast. It is personified as a female monster. See Scylla.
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CLVI 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 CLVI, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/sonnet-clvi.html, id L14731.
Form and metre
Sonnet CLVI 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%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% 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 ridesA · gloomB · roomB · presidesA · bidesA · tombB · consumeB · besidesA · disdainC · cordsD · entwinedC · restrainD · affordsC · findD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My bark, deep laden with oblivion, rides | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| O'er boisterous waves, through winter's midnight gloom, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| 'Twixt Scylla and Charybdis, while, in room | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Of pilot, Love, mine enemy, presides; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| At every oar a guilty fancy bides, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Holding at nought the tempest and the tomb; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| A moist eternal wind the sails consume, | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Of sighs, of hopes, and of desire besides. | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| A shower of tears, a fog of chill disdain | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| Bathes and relaxes the o'er-wearied cords, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| With error and with ignorance entwined; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| My two loved lights their wonted aid restrain; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Reason or Art, storm-quell'd, no help affords, | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Nor hope remains the wish'd-for port to find. | 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.