To Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini (Wollaston)
The flower, in youth which virtue's promise bore,When Love in your pure heart first sought to dwell,Now beareth fruit that flower which matches well,And my long hopes are richly come ashore,Prompting my spirit some glad verse to pourWhere to due honour your high name may swell,For what can finest marble truly tellOf living mortal than the form he wore?Think you great Caesar's or Marcellus' name,That Paulus, Africanus to our days,By anvil or by hammer ever came?No! frail the sculptor's power for lasting praise:Our study, my Pandolfo, only canGive immortality of fame to man.
Words in this poem
- 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]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini (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 Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini (Wollaston), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/to-paudolfo-malatesta-lord-of-rimini-wollaston.html, id L14614.
Form and metre
To Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini (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 90%).
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 boreA · dwellB · wellB · ashoreA · pourA · swellB · tellB · woreA · nameC · daysD · cameC · praiseD · canC · manD
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 flower, in youth which virtue's promise bore, | 10 | ·/···/˘/˘· |
| When Love in your pure heart first sought to dwell, | 10 | ·········· |
| Now beareth fruit that flower which matches well, | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| And my long hopes are richly come ashore, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Prompting my spirit some glad verse to pour | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Where to due honour your high name may swell, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For what can finest marble truly tell | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Of living mortal than the form he wore? | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Think you great Caesar's or Marcellus' name, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| That Paulus, Africanus to our days, | 10 | ·/˘·····/· |
| By anvil or by hammer ever came? | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| No! frail the sculptor's power for lasting praise: | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| Our study, my Pandolfo, only can | 10 | //˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Give immortality of fame to man. | 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.