To Pine for Her Is Better than to Enjoy Happiness with Any Other (Woodhouselee)
An evil star usher'd my natal morn(If heaven have o'er us power, as some have said),Hard was the cradle where I lay when born,And hard the earth where first my young feet play'd;Cruel the lady who, with eyes of scornAnd fatal bow, whose mark I still was made,Dealt me the wound, O Love, which since I mournWhose cure thou only, with those arms, canst aid.But, ah! to thee my torments pleasure bring:She, too, severer would have wished the blow,A spear-head thrust, and not an arrow-sting.One comfort rests--better to suffer soFor her, than others to enjoy: and I,Sworn on thy golden dart, on this for death rely.
Words in this poem
- natal a.
- Of or pertaining to one's birth; accompying or dating from one's birth; native. [L. natalis, fr. natus, p.p. of nasci to be born: cf. F. natal. See Nation, and cf. Noel.]
- 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.]
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 (Woodhouselee) 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 (Woodhouselee), 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-other-woodhouselee.html, id L14710.
Form and metre
To Pine for Her Is Better than to Enjoy Happiness with Any Other (Woodhouselee) 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 85%).
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 mornA · saidB · bornB · play'dA · scornA · madeB · mournB · aidA · bringC · blowD · stingC · soD · iC · relyD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An evil star usher'd my natal morn | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| (If heaven have o'er us power, as some have said), | 10 | ·/···/···· |
| Hard was the cradle where I lay when born, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And hard the earth where first my young feet play'd; | 10 | ·········· |
| Cruel the lady who, with eyes of scorn | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And fatal bow, whose mark I still was made, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Dealt me the wound, O Love, which since I mourn | 10 | ·········· |
| Whose cure thou only, with those arms, canst aid. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But, ah! to thee my torments pleasure bring: | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| She, too, severer would have wished the blow, | 10 | ·········· |
| A spear-head thrust, and not an arrow-sting. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| One comfort rests--better to suffer so | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| For her, than others to enjoy: and I, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Sworn on thy golden dart, on this for death rely. | 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.