The Song of the Nightingale Reminds Him of His Unhappy Lot (Wrangham)
Yon nightingale, whose strain so sweetly flows,Mourning her ravish'd young or much-loved mate,A soothing charm o'er all the valleys throwsAnd skies, with notes well tuned to her sad state:And all the night she seems my kindred woesWith me to weep and on my sorrows wait;Sorrows that from my own fond fancy rose,Who deem'd a goddess could not yield to fate.How easy to deceive who sleeps secure!Who could have thought that to dull earth would turnThose eyes that as the sun shone bright and pure?Ah! now what Fortune wills I see full sure:That loathing life, yet living I should seeHow few its joys, how little they endure!
About this text
The Song of the Nightingale Reminds Him of His Unhappy Lot (Wrangham) 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, The Song of the Nightingale Reminds Him of His Unhappy Lot (Wrangham), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/the-song-of-the-nightingale-reminds-him-of-his-unhappy-lot-wrangham.html, id L14913.
Form and metre
The Song of the Nightingale Reminds Him of His Unhappy Lot (Wrangham) 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 91%).
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 flowsA · mateB · throwsB · stateA · woesA · waitB · roseB · fateA · secureC · turnD · pureC · sureD · seeC · endureD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Yon nightingale, whose strain so sweetly flows, | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Mourning her ravish'd young or much-loved mate, | 10 | /˘········ |
| A soothing charm o'er all the valleys throws | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And skies, with notes well tuned to her sad state: | 10 | ·········· |
| And all the night she seems my kindred woes | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With me to weep and on my sorrows wait; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sorrows that from my own fond fancy rose, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Who deem'd a goddess could not yield to fate. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| How easy to deceive who sleeps secure! | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Who could have thought that to dull earth would turn | 10 | ·········· |
| Those eyes that as the sun shone bright and pure? | 10 | ·········· |
| Ah! now what Fortune wills I see full sure: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That loathing life, yet living I should see | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| How few its joys, how little they endure! | 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.