Analysis of Sonnet 86: Alas, Whence Come This Change Of Looks?

Sir Philip Sidney 1554 (Penshurst, Kent) – 1586 (Zutphen)



Alas, whence come this change of looks? If I
Have chang'd desert, let mine own conscience be
A still-felt plague, to self-condemning me:
Let woe gripe on my heart, shame load mine eye.

But if all faith, like spotless ermine lie
Safe in my soul, which only doth to thee
(As his sole object of felicity)
With wings of love in air of wonder fly,

Oh ease your hand, treat not so hard your slave:
In justice pains come not till faults do call.
Or if I needs, sweet Judge, must torments have,

Use something else to chasten me withal
Than those blest eyes, where all my hopes do dwell.
No doom should make one's heav'n become his hell.


Scheme ABBA ABBA XCX CDD
Poetic Form
Metre 0111111111 1110111101 0111110101 1111111111 1111110101 1011110111 1111010100 1111011101 1111111111 0101111111 111111111 110111011 1111111111 1111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 636
Words 121
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 121
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
49

Sir Philip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. more…

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