Analysis of Sonnet XXV: The Wisest Scholar

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



The wisest scholar of the wight most wise
By Phoebus' doom, with sugar'd sentence says,
That Virtue, if it once met with our eyes,
Strange flames of love it in our souls would raise;

But for that man with pain his truth descries,
Whiles he each thing in sense's balance weighs,
And so nor will, nor can behold those skies
Which inward sun to heroic mind displays,

Virtue of late with virtuous care to stir
Love of herself, took Stella's shape, that she
To mortal eyes might sweetly shine in her.

It is most true, for since I her did see,
Virtue's great beauty in that face I prove,
And find th'effect, for I do burn in love.


Scheme AXAB ABAB CDC DXX
Poetic Form
Metre 0101010111 1101110101 11011111101 11111010111 111111111 111101101 0111110111 11011010101 10111100111 1101110111 1101110100 1111111011 111001111 011101111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 632
Words 120
Sentences 3
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
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
23

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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    A 18
    B 14
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