To One Who Desired Latin Verse of Him
Still had I sojourn'd in that Delphic caveWhere young Apollo prophet first became,Verona, Mantua were not sole in fame,But Florence, too, her poet now might have:But since the waters of that spring no moreEnrich my land, needs must that I pursueSome other planet, and, with sickle new,Reap from my field of sticks and thorns its store.Dried is the olive: elsewhere turn'd the streamWhose source from famed Parnassus was derived.Whereby of yore it throve in best esteem.Me fortune thus, or fault perchance, deprivedOf all good fruit--unless eternal JoveShower on my head some favour from above.
Words in this poem
- delphic a.
- Of or relating to Delphi, or to the famous oracle of that place. [L. Delphicus, fr. Gr. Delphi, a town of Phocis, in Greece, now Kastri.]
- mantua n.
- A superior kind of rich silk formerly exported from Mantua in Italy. Beck (Draper's Dict.).
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- parnassus n.
- A mountain in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and famous for a temple of Apollo and for the Castalian spring. Grass of Parnassus. (Bot.) See under Grass, and Parnassia.
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To One Who Desired Latin Verse of Him 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 One Who Desired Latin Verse of Him, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/to-one-who-desired-latin-verse-of-him.html, id L14698.
Form and metre
To One Who Desired Latin Verse of Him 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 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% 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 caveA · becameB · fameB · haveA · moreA · pursueB · newB · storeA · streamC · derivedD · esteemC · deprivedD · joveC · aboveD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Still had I sojourn'd in that Delphic cave | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where young Apollo prophet first became, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Verona, Mantua were not sole in fame, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| But Florence, too, her poet now might have: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But since the waters of that spring no more | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Enrich my land, needs must that I pursue | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| Some other planet, and, with sickle new, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Reap from my field of sticks and thorns its store. | 10 | ·········· |
| Dried is the olive: elsewhere turn'd the stream | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Whose source from famed Parnassus was derived. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Whereby of yore it throve in best esteem. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Me fortune thus, or fault perchance, deprived | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| Of all good fruit--unless eternal Jove | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Shower on my head some favour from above. | 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.