To Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini
Sweet virtue's blossom had its promise shedWithin thy breast (when Love became thy foe);Fair as the flower, now its fruit doth glow,And not by visions hath my hope been fed.To hail thee thus, I by my heart am led,That by my pen thy name renown should know;No marble can the lasting fame bestowLike that by poets' characters is spread.Dost think Marcellus' or proud Caesar's name,Or Africanus, Paulus--still resound,That sculptors proud have effigied their deed?No, Pandolph, frail the statuary's fame,For immortality alone is foundWithin the records of a poet's meed.
Words in this poem
- meed v. t.
- To reward; to repay. Waytt.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini 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, 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.html, id L14613.
Form and metre
To Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini 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%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 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 shedA · foeB · glowB · fedA · ledA · knowB · bestowB · spreadA · nameC · resoundD · deedC · fameD · foundC · meedD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet virtue's blossom had its promise shed | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Within thy breast (when Love became thy foe); | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Fair as the flower, now its fruit doth glow, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And not by visions hath my hope been fed. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To hail thee thus, I by my heart am led, | 10 | ·········· |
| That by my pen thy name renown should know; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| No marble can the lasting fame bestow | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Like that by poets' characters is spread. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Dost think Marcellus' or proud Caesar's name, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Or Africanus, Paulus--still resound, | 10 | ·····/˘··/ |
| That sculptors proud have effigied their deed? | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| No, Pandolph, frail the statuary's fame, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| For immortality alone is found | 10 | ··˘/˘˘˘/·· |
| Within the records of a poet's meed. | 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.