Sonnet LXXV
Weary with expectation's endless round,And overcome in this long war of sighs,I hold desires in hate and hopes despise,And every tie wherewith my breast is bound;But the bright face which in my heart profoundIs stamp'd, and seen where'er I turn mine eyes,Compels me where, against my will, ariseThe same sharp pains that first my ruin crown'd.Then was my error when the old way quiteOf liberty was bann'd and barr'd to me:He follows ill who pleases but his sight:To its own harm my soul ran wild and free,Now doom'd at others' will to wait and wend;Because that once it ventured to offend.
Words in this poem
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
- wend n.
- A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXXV 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 LXXV, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/sonnet-lxxv.html, id L14600.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXXV 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 90%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 roundA · sighsB · despiseB · boundA · profoundA · eyesB · ariseB · crown'dA · quiteC · meD · sightC · freeD · wendC · offendD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Weary with expectation's endless round, | 10 | /˘··˘/˘/˘· |
| And overcome in this long war of sighs, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I hold desires in hate and hopes despise, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| And every tie wherewith my breast is bound; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| But the bright face which in my heart profound | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Is stamp'd, and seen where'er I turn mine eyes, | 11 | ····˘˘/···· |
| Compels me where, against my will, arise | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| The same sharp pains that first my ruin crown'd. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Then was my error when the old way quite | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of liberty was bann'd and barr'd to me: | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| He follows ill who pleases but his sight: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| To its own harm my soul ran wild and free, | 10 | ·········· |
| Now doom'd at others' will to wait and wend; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Because that once it ventured to offend. | 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.