To See and Hear Her Is His Greatest Bliss
I feed my fancy on such noble food,That Jove I envy not his godlike meal;I see her--joy invades me like a flood,And lethe of all other bliss I feel;I hear her--instantly that music rareBids from my captive heart the fond sigh flow;Borne by the hand of Love I know not where,A double pleasure in one draught I know.Even in heaven that dear voice pleaseth well,So winning are its words, its sound so sweet,None can conceive, save who had heard, their spell;Thus, in the same small space, visibly, meetAll charms of eye and ear wherewith our raceArt, Genius, Nature, Heaven have join'd to grace.
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.]
- lethe n.
- A river of Hades whose waters when drunk caused forgetfulness of the past.
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To See and Hear Her Is His Greatest Bliss 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, 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.html, id L14738.
Form and metre
To See and Hear Her Is His Greatest Bliss 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 91%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 foodA · mealB · floodB · feelA · rareA · flowB · whereB · knowA · wellC · sweetD · spellC · meetD · raceC · graceD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I feed my fancy on such noble food, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That Jove I envy not his godlike meal; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I see her--joy invades me like a flood, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And lethe of all other bliss I feel; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I hear her--instantly that music rare | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Bids from my captive heart the fond sigh flow; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Borne by the hand of Love I know not where, | 10 | ·········· |
| A double pleasure in one draught I know. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Even in heaven that dear voice pleaseth well, | 10 | /·/˘···/˘· |
| So winning are its words, its sound so sweet, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| None can conceive, save who had heard, their spell; | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Thus, in the same small space, visibly, meet | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| All charms of eye and ear wherewith our race | 10 | ······˘//· |
| Art, Genius, Nature, Heaven have join'd to grace. | 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.