Sonnet LXXII
To that soft look which now adorns the skies,The graceful bending of the radiant head,The face, the sweet angelic accents fled,That soothed me once, but now awake my sighsOh! when to these imagination flies,I wonder that I am not long since dead!'Tis she supports me, for her heavenly treadIs round my couch when morning visions rise!In every attitude how holy, chaste!How tenderly she seems to hear the taleOf my long woes, and their relief to seek!But when day breaks she then appears in hasteThe well-known heavenward path again to scale,With moisten'd eye, and soft expressive cheek!
Words in this poem
- tenderly adv.
- In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXXII 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 LXXII, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/sonnet-lxxii.html, id L14967.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXXII 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 89%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 skiesA · headB · fledB · sighsA · fliesA · deadB · treadB · riseA · chasteC · taleD · seekC · hasteD · scaleC · cheekD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To that soft look which now adorns the skies, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The graceful bending of the radiant head, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The face, the sweet angelic accents fled, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| That soothed me once, but now awake my sighs | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Oh! when to these imagination flies, | 10 | ····˘·˘/˘· |
| I wonder that I am not long since dead! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| 'Tis she supports me, for her heavenly tread | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Is round my couch when morning visions rise! | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| In every attitude how holy, chaste! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| How tenderly she seems to hear the tale | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Of my long woes, and their relief to seek! | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| But when day breaks she then appears in haste | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The well-known heavenward path again to scale, | 11 | ···/˘˘·˘/·· |
| With moisten'd eye, and soft expressive cheek! | 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.