To See and Hear Her Is His Greatest Bliss (Macgregor)
Such noble aliment sustains my soul,That Jove I envy not his godlike food;I gaze on her--and feel each other goodEngulph'd in that blest draught at Lethe's bowl:Her every word I in my heart enrol,That on its grief it still may constant brood;Prostrate by Love--my doom not understoodFrom that one form, I feel a twin control.My spirit drinks the music of her voice,Whose speaking harmony (to heaven so dear)They only feel who in its tone partake:Again within her face my eyes rejoice,For in its gentle lineaments appearWhat Genius, Nature, Art, and Heaven can wake.
Words in this poem
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To See and Hear Her Is His Greatest Bliss (Macgregor) 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 See and Hear Her Is His Greatest Bliss (Macgregor), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/to-see-and-hear-her-is-his-greatest-bliss-macgregor.html, id L14739.
Form and metre
To See and Hear Her Is His Greatest Bliss (Macgregor) 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%).
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 soulA · foodB · goodB · bowlA · enrolA · broodB · understoodB · controlA · voiceC · dearD · partakeC · rejoiceD · appearC · wakeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Such noble aliment sustains my soul, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/·· |
| That Jove I envy not his godlike food; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I gaze on her--and feel each other good | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Engulph'd in that blest draught at Lethe's bowl: | 10 | ·········· |
| Her every word I in my heart enrol, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| That on its grief it still may constant brood; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Prostrate by Love--my doom not understood | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| From that one form, I feel a twin control. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| My spirit drinks the music of her voice, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Whose speaking harmony (to heaven so dear) | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/·· |
| They only feel who in its tone partake: | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Again within her face my eyes rejoice, | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| For in its gentle lineaments appear | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| What Genius, Nature, Art, and Heaven can wake. | 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.