Sonnet LV
Now hast thou shown, fell Death! thine utmost might.Through Love's bright realm hast want and darkness spread,Hast now cropp'd beauty's flower, its heavenly lightQuench'd, and enclosed in the grave's narrow bed;Now hast thou life despoil'd of all delight,Its ornament and sovereign honour shed:But fame and worth it is not thine to blight;These mock thy power, and sleep not with the dead.Be thine the mortal part; heaven holds the best,And, glorying in its brightness, brighter glows,While memory still records the great and good.O thou, in thine high triumph, angel blest!Let thy heart yield to pity of my woes,E'en as thy beauty here my soul subdued.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LV 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 LV, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/sonnet-lv.html, id L14938.
Form and metre
Sonnet LV 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%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 mightA · spreadB · lightB · bedA · delightA · shedB · blightB · deadA · bestC · glowsD · goodC · blestD · woesC · subduedD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now hast thou shown, fell Death! thine utmost might. | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Through Love's bright realm hast want and darkness spread, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Hast now cropp'd beauty's flower, its heavenly light | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| Quench'd, and enclosed in the grave's narrow bed; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Now hast thou life despoil'd of all delight, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Its ornament and sovereign honour shed: | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| But fame and worth it is not thine to blight; | 10 | ·········· |
| These mock thy power, and sleep not with the dead. | 10 | ···/······ |
| Be thine the mortal part; heaven holds the best, | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| And, glorying in its brightness, brighter glows, | 10 | ·/˘˘··/˘/· |
| While memory still records the great and good. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| O thou, in thine high triumph, angel blest! | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Let thy heart yield to pity of my woes, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| E'en as thy beauty here my soul subdued. | 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.