To Stramazzo of Perugia, Who Invited Him to Write Poetry
If the world-honour'd leaf, whose green defiesThe wrath of Heaven when thunders mighty Jove,Had not to me prohibited the crownWhich wreathes of wont the gifted poet's brow,I were a friend of these your idols too,Whom our vile age so shamelessly ignores:But that sore insult keeps me now aloofFrom the first patron of the olive bough:For Ethiop earth beneath its tropic sunNe'er burn'd with such fierce heat, as I with rageAt losing thing so comely and beloved.Resort then to some calmer fuller fount,For of all moisture mine is drain'd and dry,Save that which falleth from mine eyes in tears.
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.]
- ethiop n.
- A native or inhabitant of Ethiopia; also, in a general sense, a negro or black man.
- calmer n.
- One who, or that which, makes calm.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Stramazzo of Perugia, Who Invited Him to Write Poetry 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 Stramazzo of Perugia, Who Invited Him to Write Poetry, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/to-stramazzo-of-perugia-who-invited-him-to-write-poetry.html, id L14502.
Form and metre
To Stramazzo of Perugia, Who Invited Him to Write Poetry 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 87%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 defiesA · joveB · crownB · browA · tooA · ignoresB · aloofB · boughA · sunC · rageD · belovedC · fountD · dryC · tearsD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If the world-honour'd leaf, whose green defies | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The wrath of Heaven when thunders mighty Jove, | 10 | ···/·/˘/˘· |
| Had not to me prohibited the crown | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Which wreathes of wont the gifted poet's brow, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| I were a friend of these your idols too, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whom our vile age so shamelessly ignores: | 10 | ·/···/˘˘˘/ |
| But that sore insult keeps me now aloof | 10 | ···/····˘/ |
| From the first patron of the olive bough: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| For Ethiop earth beneath its tropic sun | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ne'er burn'd with such fierce heat, as I with rage | 10 | ·········· |
| At losing thing so comely and beloved. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Resort then to some calmer fuller fount, | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘· |
| For of all moisture mine is drain'd and dry, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Save that which falleth from mine eyes in tears. | 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.