Sonnet LX
Go, plaintive verse, to the cold marble go,Which hides in earth my treasure from these eyes;There call on her who answers from yon skies,Although the mortal part dwells dark and low.Of life how I am wearied make her know,Of stemming these dread waves that round me rise:But, copying all her virtues I so prize,Her track I follow, yet my steps are slow.I sing of her, living, or dead, alone;(Dead, did I say? She is immortal made!)That by the world she should be loved, and known.Oh! in my passage hence may she be near,To greet my coming that's not long delay'd;And may I hold in heaven the rank herself holds there!
About this text
Sonnet LX 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 LX, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/sonnet-lx.html, id L14949.
Form and metre
Sonnet LX 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 87%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables.
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 · eyesB · skiesB · lowA · knowA · riseB · prizeB · slowA · aloneC · madeD · knownC · nearD · delay'dC · thereD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Go, plaintive verse, to the cold marble go, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Which hides in earth my treasure from these eyes; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| There call on her who answers from yon skies, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Although the mortal part dwells dark and low. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of life how I am wearied make her know, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of stemming these dread waves that round me rise: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But, copying all her virtues I so prize, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Her track I follow, yet my steps are slow. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I sing of her, living, or dead, alone; | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| (Dead, did I say? She is immortal made!) | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| That by the world she should be loved, and known. | 10 | ·········· |
| Oh! in my passage hence may she be near, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To greet my coming that's not long delay'd; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And may I hold in heaven the rank herself holds there! | 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.