Analysis of Sonnet XLI: Why Do I Speak of Joy

Michael Drayton 1563 (Hartshill) – 1631 (London)



Why do I speak of joy, or write of love,
When my heart is the very den of horror,
And in my soul the pains of Hell I prove,
With all his torments and infernal terror?
What should I say? What yet remains to do?
My brain is dry with weeping all too long,
My sighs be spent in uttering my woe,
And I want words wherewith to tell my wrong;
But, still distracted in Love's lunacy,
And, bedlam-like, thus raging in my grief,
Now rail upon her hair, then on her eye,
Now call her Goddess, then I call her thief,
Now I deny her, then I do confess her,
Now do I curse her, then again I bless her.


Scheme ABCBDEFEGHIHBB
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111111 11110101110 0011011111 1111001010 1111110111 1111110111 1111010011 011111111 1101001100 0101110011 1101011101 1101011101 11010111010 11110101110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 608
Words 125
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 442
Words per stanza (avg) 121
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
73

Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. more…

All Michael Drayton poems | Michael Drayton Books

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