With Her, His Only Solace, Is Taken Away All His Desire of Life
Since her calm angel face, long beauty's fane,My beggar'd soul by this brief parting throwsIn darkest horrors and in deepest woes,I seek by uttering to allay my pain.Certes, just sorrow leads me to complain:This she, who is its cause, and Love too shows;No other remedy my poor heart knowsAgainst the troubles that in life obtain.Death! thou hast snatch'd her hence with hand unkind,And thou, glad Earth! that fair and kindly faceNow hidest from me in thy close embrace;Why leave me here, disconsolate and blind,Since she who of mine eyes the light has been,Sweet, loving, bright, no more with me is seen?
Words in this poem
- fane n.
- A temple; a place consecrated to religion; a church. [L. fanum a place dedicated to some deity, a sanctuary, fr. fari to speak. See Fame.]
- certes adv.
- Certainly; in truth; verily. [F. certes, for à certes, fr. L. certus. See Certain.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- disconsolate n.
- Disconsolateness. Barrow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
With Her, His Only Solace, Is Taken Away All His Desire of Life 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, With Her, His Only Solace, Is Taken Away All His Desire of Life, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/with-her-his-only-solace-is-taken-away-all-his-desire-of-lif.html, id L14851.
Form and metre
With Her, His Only Solace, Is Taken Away All His Desire of Life 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%). 94% 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 faneA · throwsB · woesB · painA · complainA · showsB · knowsB · obtainA · unkindC · faceD · embraceC · blindD · beenC · seenD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Since her calm angel face, long beauty's fane, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| My beggar'd soul by this brief parting throws | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In darkest horrors and in deepest woes, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| I seek by uttering to allay my pain. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Certes, just sorrow leads me to complain: | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| This she, who is its cause, and Love too shows; | 10 | ·········· |
| No other remedy my poor heart knows | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Against the troubles that in life obtain. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Death! thou hast snatch'd her hence with hand unkind, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And thou, glad Earth! that fair and kindly face | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Now hidest from me in thy close embrace; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Why leave me here, disconsolate and blind, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Since she who of mine eyes the light has been, | 10 | ·········· |
| Sweet, loving, bright, no more with me is seen? | 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.