Analysis of Sonnet 103: Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth
William Shakespeare 1564 (Stratford-upon-Avon) – 1616 (Stratford-upon-Avon)
Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,
That having such a scope to show her pride,
The argument all bare is of more worth
Than when it hath my added praise beside.
O, blame me not if I no more can write!
Look in your glass, and there appears a face
That overgoes my blunt invention quite,
Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
Were it not sinful then striving to mend,
To mar the subject that before was well?
For to no other pass my verses tend
Than of your graces and your gifts to tell;
And more, much more than in my verse can sit,
Your own glass shows you when you look in it.
Scheme | ABCBDEDEFGFGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111001111 1101011101 0100111111 1111110101 1111111111 1011010101 11110101 1011010101 0111011011 1100110111 1111011101 1111001111 0111101111 1111111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 590 |
Words | 119 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 455 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 117 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 131 Views
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"Sonnet 103: Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41400/sonnet-103%3A-alack%2C-what-poverty-my-muse-brings-forth>.
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