To Be Near Her Recompenses Him for All the Perils of the Way
Love, who his votary wings in heart and feet,To the third heaven that lightly he may soar,In one short day has many a stream and shoreGiven to me, in famed Ardennes, to meet.Unarm'd and single to have pass'd is sweetWhere war in earnest strikes, nor tells before--A helmless, sail-less ship 'mid ocean's roar--My breast with dark and fearful thoughts replete;But reach'd my dangerous journey's far extreme,Remembering whence I came, and with whose wings,From too great courage conscious terror springs.But this fair country and beloved streamWith smiling welcome reassures my heart,Where dwells its sole light ready to depart.
Words in this poem
- helmless a.
- Destitute of a helmet.
- replete a.
- Filled again; completely filled; full; charged; abounding. [L. repletus, p. p. of replere to fill again, fill up; pref. re- re- + plere to fill, akin to plenus full: cf. F. replet corpulent. See Plenty, Replenish.]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Be Near Her Recompenses Him for All the Perils of the Way 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 Be Near Her Recompenses Him for All the Perils of the Way, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/to-be-near-her-recompenses-him-for-all-the-perils-of-the-way.html, id L14714.
Form and metre
To Be Near Her Recompenses Him for All the Perils of the Way 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%). 98% 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 feetA · soarB · shoreB · meetA · sweetA · beforeB · roarB · repleteA · extremeC · wingsD · springsC · streamD · heartC · departD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love, who his votary wings in heart and feet, | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| To the third heaven that lightly he may soar, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| In one short day has many a stream and shore | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Given to me, in famed Ardennes, to meet. | 10 | /˘····/˘·· |
| Unarm'd and single to have pass'd is sweet | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Where war in earnest strikes, nor tells before-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A helmless, sail-less ship 'mid ocean's roar-- | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| My breast with dark and fearful thoughts replete; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| But reach'd my dangerous journey's far extreme, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Remembering whence I came, and with whose wings, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| From too great courage conscious terror springs. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| But this fair country and beloved stream | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| With smiling welcome reassures my heart, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Where dwells its sole light ready to depart. | 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.