To a Friend, Encouraging Him to Pursue Poetry
Torn is each virtue from its earthly throneBy sloth, intemperance, and voluptuous ease;E'en nature deviates from her wonted ways,Too much the slave of vicious custom grown.Far hence is every light celestial gone,That guides mankind through life's perplexing maze;And those, whom Helicon's sweet waters please,From mocking crowds receive contempt alone.Who now would laurel, myrtle-wreaths obtain?Let want, let shame, Philosophy attend!Cries the base world, intent on sordid gain.What though thy favourite path be trod by few;Let it but urge thee more, dear gentle friend!Thy great design of glory to pursue.
Words in this poem
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
- sordid a.
- Filthy; foul; dirty. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See Swart, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Friend, Encouraging Him to Pursue Poetry 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, To a Friend, Encouraging Him to Pursue Poetry, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/to-a-friend-encouraging-him-to-pursue-poetry.html, id L14471.
Form and metre
To a Friend, Encouraging Him to Pursue Poetry 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%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 7% 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 throneA · easeB · waysB · grownA · goneA · mazeB · pleaseB · aloneA · obtainC · attendD · gainC · fewD · friendC · pursueD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Torn is each virtue from its earthly throne | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| By sloth, intemperance, and voluptuous ease; | 11 | ··˘/˘˘·˘/˘· |
| E'en nature deviates from her wonted ways, | 11 | ·/˘/˘···/˘· |
| Too much the slave of vicious custom grown. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Far hence is every light celestial gone, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| That guides mankind through life's perplexing maze; | 10 | ··//··˘/˘· |
| And those, whom Helicon's sweet waters please, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| From mocking crowds receive contempt alone. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘/ |
| Who now would laurel, myrtle-wreaths obtain? | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Let want, let shame, Philosophy attend! | 10 | ····˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Cries the base world, intent on sordid gain. | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| What though thy favourite path be trod by few; | 11 | ··········· |
| Let it but urge thee more, dear gentle friend! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thy great design of glory to pursue. | 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.