To His Brother Gerardo, on the Death of a Lady to Whom He Was Attached
The beauteous lady thou didst love so wellToo soon hath from our regions wing'd her flight,To find, I ween, a home 'mid realms of light;So much in virtue did she here excelThy heart's twin key of joy and woe can dwellNo more with her--then re-assume thy might,Pursue her by the path most swift and right,Nor let aught earthly stay thee by its spell.Thus from thy heaviest burthen being freed,Each other thou canst easier dispel,And an unfreighted pilgrim seek thy sky;Too well, thou seest, how much the soul hath need,(Ere yet it tempt the shadowy vale) to quellEach earthly hope, since all that lives must die.
Words in this poem
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- dispel v. t.
- To drive away by scattering, or so to cause to vanish; to clear away; to banish; to dissipate; as, to dispel a cloud, vapors, cares, doubts, illusions. [L. dispellere; dis- + pellere to push, drive. See Pulse a beating.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
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 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, 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.html, id L14593.
Form and metre
To His Brother Gerardo, on the Death of a Lady to Whom He Was Attached 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 88%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 wellA · flightB · lightB · excelA · dwellA · mightB · rightB · spellA · freedC · dispelD · skyC · needD · quellC · dieD
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 beauteous lady thou didst love so well | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘····· |
| Too soon hath from our regions wing'd her flight, | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| To find, I ween, a home 'mid realms of light; | 10 | ·········· |
| So much in virtue did she here excel | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Thy heart's twin key of joy and woe can dwell | 10 | ·········· |
| No more with her--then re-assume thy might, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Pursue her by the path most swift and right, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Nor let aught earthly stay thee by its spell. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thus from thy heaviest burthen being freed, | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/· |
| Each other thou canst easier dispel, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| And an unfreighted pilgrim seek thy sky; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Too well, thou seest, how much the soul hath need, | 10 | ·········· |
| (Ere yet it tempt the shadowy vale) to quell | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Each earthly hope, since all that lives must die. | 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.