Sonnet VI
O tyrant thoughts, vouchsafe me some repose!Sufficeth not that Love, and Death, and Fate,Make war all round me to my very gate,But I must in me armed hosts enclose?And thou, my heart, to me alone that showsDisloyal still, what cruel guides of lateIn thee find shelter, now the chosen mateOf my most mischievous and bitter foes?Love his most secret embassies in thee,In thee her worst results hard Fate explains,And Death the memory of that blow, to meWhich shatters all that yet of hope remains;In thee vague thoughts themselves with error arm,And thee alone I blame for all my harm.
Words in this poem
- vouchsafe v. t.
- To condescend to grant; to concede; to bestow. [Vouch + safe, that is, to vouch or answer for safety.]
- enclose v. t.
- To inclose. See Inclose. [F. enclos, p. p. of enclore to enclose; pref. en- (L. in) + clore to close. See Close, and cf. Inclose, Include.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet VI 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 VI, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/sonnet-vi.html, id L14848.
Form and metre
Sonnet VI 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%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 reposeA · fateB · gateB · encloseA · showsA · lateB · mateB · foesA · theeC · explainsD · meC · remainsD · armC · harmD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O tyrant thoughts, vouchsafe me some repose! | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Sufficeth not that Love, and Death, and Fate, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Make war all round me to my very gate, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But I must in me armed hosts enclose? | 10 | ······˘·˘/ |
| And thou, my heart, to me alone that shows | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Disloyal still, what cruel guides of late | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| In thee find shelter, now the chosen mate | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of my most mischievous and bitter foes? | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Love his most secret embassies in thee, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| In thee her worst results hard Fate explains, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| And Death the memory of that blow, to me | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Which shatters all that yet of hope remains; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| In thee vague thoughts themselves with error arm, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| And thee alone I blame for all my harm. | 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.