Sonnet CXCIX
Alas! Love bears me where I would not go,And well I see how duty is transgress'd,And how to her who, queen-like, rules my breast,More than my wont importunate I grow.Never from rocks wise sailor guarded soHis ship of richest merchandise possess'd,As evermore I shield my bark distress'dFrom shocks of her hard pride that would o'erthrowTorrents of tears, fierce winds of infinite sighs--For, in my sea, nights horrible and darkAnd pitiless winter reign--have driven my bark,Sail-less and helm-less where it shatter'd lies,Or, drifting at the mercy of the main,Trouble to others bears, distress to me and pain.
Words in this poem
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXCIX 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 CXCIX, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/sonnet-cxcix.html, id L14796.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXCIX 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 83%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% 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 goA · transgress'dB · breastB · growA · soA · possess'dB · distress'dB · o'erthrowA · sighsC · darkD · barkC · liesD · mainC · painD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alas! Love bears me where I would not go, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| And well I see how duty is transgress'd, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And how to her who, queen-like, rules my breast, | 10 | ·········· |
| More than my wont importunate I grow. | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Never from rocks wise sailor guarded so | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| His ship of richest merchandise possess'd, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| As evermore I shield my bark distress'd | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| From shocks of her hard pride that would o'erthrow | 10 | ·········· |
| Torrents of tears, fierce winds of infinite sighs | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| --For, in my sea, nights horrible and dark | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And pitiless winter reign--have driven my bark, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/·· |
| Sail-less and helm-less where it shatter'd lies, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Or, drifting at the mercy of the main, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Trouble to others bears, distress to me and pain. | 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.