Analysis of Sonnet 101: O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
William Shakespeare 1564 (Stratford-upon-Avon) – 1616 (Stratford-upon-Avon)
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
So dost thou too, and therein dignified.
Make answer, Muse. Wilt thou not haply say,
"Truth needs no colour with his colour fixed,
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay,
But best is best, if never intermixed"?
Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
Excuse not silence so, for't lies in thee
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb
And to be praised of ages yet to be.
Then do thy office, Muse; I teach thee how
To make him seem, long hence, as he shows now.
| Scheme | ABABCDCDEFGFHH |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 1101111101 1101110101 1101011101 111100110 110111111 11111111 101101111 111111001 0111111111 01110111101 111110101 0111110111 1111011111 1111111111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 592 |
| Words | 116 |
| Sentences | 8 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 14 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
| Words per line (avg) | 8 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 450 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
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"Sonnet 101: O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41398/sonnet-101%3A-o-truant-muse%2C-what-shall-be-thy-amends>.
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