Analysis of Sonnet III. Canzone. (Translated From Milton)

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



They mock my toil--the nymphs and am'rous swains--
And whence this fond attempt to write, they cry,
Love-songs in language that thou little know'st?
How dar'st thou risque to sing these foreign strains?
Say truly. Find'st not oft thy purpose cross'd,
And that thy fairest flow'rs, Here, fade and die?
Then with pretence of admiration high--
Thee other shores expect, and other tides,
Rivers on whose grassy sides
Her deathless laurel-leaf with which to bind
Thy flowing locks, already Fame provides;
Why then this burthen, better far declin'd?
Speak, Canzone! for me.--The Fair One said who guides
My willing heart, and all my Fancy's flights,
'This is the language in which Love delights.'


Scheme ABCADBBAAEAEAAA
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 111101011 0111011111 11010111011 11111111101 11011111101 0111011101 11110101 1101010101 1011101 011011111 1101010101 111110101 1111011111 110101111 1101001101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 685
Words 117
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 537
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
79

William Cowper

William Macquarie Cowper was an Australian Anglican archdeacon and Dean of Sydney. more…

All William Cowper poems | William Cowper Books

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