Analysis of Sonnet LXXX. To The Invisible Moon

Charlotte Smith 1749 (London) – 1806 (Tilford, Surrey)



DARK and conceal'd art thou, soft Evening's queen,
And Melancholy's votaries that delight
To watch thee, gliding through the blue serene,
Now vainly seek thee on the brow of night--
Mild Sorrow, such as hope has not forsook,
May love to muse beneath thy silent reign;
But I prefer from some steep rock to look
On the obscure and fluctuating main,
What time the martial star with lurid glare,
Portentous, gleams above the troubled deep;
Or the red comet shakes his blazing hair;
Or on the fire-ting'd waves the lightnings leap;
While thy fair beams illume another sky,
And shine for beings less accursed than I.


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Poetic Form Shakespearean sonnet 
Metre 1001111101 011101 1111010101 1101110111 1101111101 1111011101 1101111111 100101001 1101011101 0101010101 1011011101 11010110101 111110101 011101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 606
Words 108
Sentences 2
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 483
Words per stanza (avg) 106
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 18, 2023

33 sec read
120

Charlotte Smith

Charlotte Turner Smith was an English Romantic poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility. A successful writer, she published ten novels, three books of poetry, four children's books, and other assorted works over the course of her career. She saw herself as a poet first and foremost, poetry at that period being considered the most exalted form of literature. Scholars now credit her with transforming the sonnet into an expression of woeful sentiment. more…

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