Under the Allegory of a Laurel He Again Deplores Her Death
As a fair plant, uprooted by oft blowsOf trenchant spade, or which the blast upheaves,Scatters on earth its green and lofty leaves,And its bare roots to the broad sunlight shows;Love such another for my object chose,Of whom for me the Muse a subject weaves,Who in my captured heart her home achieves,As on some wall or tree the ivy growsThat living laurel--where their chosen nestMy high thoughts made, where sigh'd mine ardent grief,Yet never stirr'd of its fair boughs a leaf--To heaven translated, in my heart, her rest,Left deep its roots, whence ever with sad cryI call on her, who ne'er vouchsafes reply.
Words in this poem
- trenchant a.
- Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp. [OF. trenchant, F. tranchant, p. pr. See Trench, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Under the Allegory of a Laurel He Again Deplores Her Death 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, Under the Allegory of a Laurel He Again Deplores Her Death, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/under-the-allegory-of-a-laurel-he-again-deplores-her-death.html, id L14925.
Form and metre
Under the Allegory of a Laurel He Again Deplores Her Death 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%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% 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 blowsA · upheavesB · leavesB · showsA · choseA · weavesB · achievesB · growsA · nestC · griefD · leafC · restD · cryC · replyD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As a fair plant, uprooted by oft blows | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Of trenchant spade, or which the blast upheaves, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Scatters on earth its green and lofty leaves, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| And its bare roots to the broad sunlight shows; | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Love such another for my object chose, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of whom for me the Muse a subject weaves, | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| Who in my captured heart her home achieves, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| As on some wall or tree the ivy grows | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That living laurel--where their chosen nest | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| My high thoughts made, where sigh'd mine ardent grief, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yet never stirr'd of its fair boughs a leaf-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To heaven translated, in my heart, her rest, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Left deep its roots, whence ever with sad cry | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I call on her, who ne'er vouchsafes reply. | 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.