To Pine for Her Is Better than to Enjoy Happiness with Any Other
Ill-omen'd was that star's malignant gleamThat ruled my hapless birth; and dim the mornThat darted on my infant eyes the beam;And harsh the wail, that told a man was born;And hard the sterile earth, which first was wornBeneath my infant feet; but harder far,And harsher still, the tyrant maid, whose scorn,In league with savage Love, inflamed the warOf all my passions.--Love himself more tame,With pity soothes my ills; while that cold heart,Insensible to the devouring flameWhich wastes my vitals, triumphs in my smart.One thought is comfort--that her scorn to bear,Excels e'er prosperous love, with other earthly fair.
Words in this poem
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- vitals n.
- Organs that are necessary for life; more especially, the heart, lungs, and brain.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Pine for Her Is Better than to Enjoy Happiness with Any Other 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 Pine for Her Is Better than to Enjoy Happiness with Any Other, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/to-pine-for-her-is-better-than-to-enjoy-happiness-with-any-o.html, id L14709.
Form and metre
To Pine for Her Is Better than to Enjoy Happiness with Any Other 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%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% 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 gleamA · mornB · beamB · bornA · wornA · farB · scornB · warA · tameC · heartD · flameC · smartD · bearC · fairD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ill-omen'd was that star's malignant gleam | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| That ruled my hapless birth; and dim the morn | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That darted on my infant eyes the beam; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And harsh the wail, that told a man was born; | 10 | ·········· |
| And hard the sterile earth, which first was worn | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Beneath my infant feet; but harder far, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And harsher still, the tyrant maid, whose scorn, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| In league with savage Love, inflamed the war | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Of all my passions.--Love himself more tame, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| With pity soothes my ills; while that cold heart, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Insensible to the devouring flame | 10 | ˘/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| Which wastes my vitals, triumphs in my smart. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| One thought is comfort--that her scorn to bear, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Excels e'er prosperous love, with other earthly fair. | 12 | ˘/·/˘··/˘/˘· |
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.