Wollaston
Who show'd such infinite providence and skillIn his eternal government divine,Who launch'd the spheres, gave sun and moon to shine,And brightest wonders the dark void to fill;On earth who came the Scriptures to maintain,Which for long years the truth had buried yet,Took John and Peter from the fisher's netAnd gave to each his part in the heavenly reign.He for his birth fair Rome preferr'd not then,But lowly Bethlehem; thus o'er proudest stateHe ever loves humility to raise.Now rises from small spot like sun again,Whom Nature hails, the place grows bright and greatWhich birth so heavenly to our earth displays.
Words in this poem
- bethlehem n.
- A hospital for lunatics; -- corrupted into bedlam. [Heb. b house of food; b house + lekhem food, lakham to eat. Formerly the name of a hospital for the insane, in London, which had been the priory of St. Mary of ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wollaston 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, Wollaston, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/wollaston.html, id L14467.
Form and metre
Wollaston 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 84%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 skillA · divineB · shineB · fillA · maintainA · yetB · netB · reignA · thenC · stateD · raiseC · againD · greatC · displaysD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who show'd such infinite providence and skill | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| In his eternal government divine, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Who launch'd the spheres, gave sun and moon to shine, | 10 | ·········· |
| And brightest wonders the dark void to fill; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| On earth who came the Scriptures to maintain, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Which for long years the truth had buried yet, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Took John and Peter from the fisher's net | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And gave to each his part in the heavenly reign. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| He for his birth fair Rome preferr'd not then, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| But lowly Bethlehem; thus o'er proudest state | 11 | ·/˘/˘···/˘· |
| He ever loves humility to raise. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| Now rises from small spot like sun again, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Whom Nature hails, the place grows bright and great | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Which birth so heavenly to our earth displays. | 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.