To His Brother Gerardo, on the Death of a Lady to Whom He Was Attached (Wollaston)
The lovely lady who was long so dearTo thee, now suddenly is from us gone,And, for this hope is sure, to heaven is flown,So mild and angel-like her life was here!Now from her thraldom since thy heart is clear,Whose either key she, living, held alone,Follow where she the safe short way has shown,Nor let aught earthly longer interfere.Thus disencumber'd from the heavier weight,The lesser may aside be easier laid,And the freed pilgrim win the crystal gate;So teaching us, since all things that are madeHasten to death, how light must be his soulWho treads the perilous pass, unscathed and whole!
Words in this poem
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- thraldom n.
- The condition of a thrall; slavery; bondage; state of servitude. [Icel. . See Thrall, and -dom.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To His Brother Gerardo, on the Death of a Lady to Whom He Was Attached (Wollaston) 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 His Brother Gerardo, on the Death of a Lady to Whom He Was Attached (Wollaston), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/to-his-brother-gerardo-on-the-death-of-a-lady-to-whom-he-was-attached-wollaston.html, id L14594.
Form and metre
To His Brother Gerardo, on the Death of a Lady to Whom He Was Attached (Wollaston) 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%).
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 dearA · goneB · flownB · hereA · clearA · aloneB · shownB · interfereA · weightC · laidD · gateC · madeD · soulC · wholeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The lovely lady who was long so dear | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| To thee, now suddenly is from us gone, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| And, for this hope is sure, to heaven is flown, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| So mild and angel-like her life was here! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Now from her thraldom since thy heart is clear, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Whose either key she, living, held alone, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Follow where she the safe short way has shown, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Nor let aught earthly longer interfere. | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Thus disencumber'd from the heavier weight, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The lesser may aside be easier laid, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| And the freed pilgrim win the crystal gate; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| So teaching us, since all things that are made | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Hasten to death, how light must be his soul | 10 | /˘········ |
| Who treads the perilous pass, unscathed and whole! | 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.