Analysis of Sonnet XXX
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)
I see thine image through my tears to-night,
And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How
Refer the cause ?--Beloved, is it thou
Or I, who makes me sad ? The acolyte
Amid the chanted joy and thankful rite
May so fall flat, with pale insensate brow,
On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow,
Perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out of sight,
As he, in his swooning ears, the choir's Amen.
Beloved, dost thou love ? or did I see all
The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when
Too vehement light dilated my ideal,
For my soul's eyes ? Will that light come again,
As now these tears come--falling hot and real ?
Scheme | ABBAABBACDCECE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011111 0111111101 010101111 111111010 0101010101 11111111 10101111101 01010111111 11011010101 0111111111 0101110101 11001010101 1111111101 1111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 599 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 457 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 116 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 170 Views
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"Sonnet XXX" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10361/sonnet-xxx>.
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