Analysis of Sonnet LV: Stillborn Love

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)



The hour which might have been yet might not be,
Which man's and woman's heart conceived and bore
Yet whereof life was barren,—on what shore
Bides it the breaking of Time's weary sea?
Bondchild of all consummate joys set free,
It somewhere sighs and serves, and mute before
The house of Love, hears through the echoing door
His hours elect in choral consonancy.
But lo! what wedded souls now hand in hand
Together tread at last the immortal strand
With eyes where burning memory lights love home?
Lo! how the little outcast hour has turned
And leaped to them and in their faces yearned:—
“I am your child: O parents, ye have come!”


Scheme ABBAABBCDDEFFG
Poetic Form
Metre 01011111111 1101010101 111110111 1101011101 111100111 111010101 01111101001 110010101 1111011101 01011100101 11110100111 1101011011 0111001101 1111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 634
Words 118
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 498
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
52

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. more…

All Dante Gabriel Rossetti poems | Dante Gabriel Rossetti Books

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    Sonnets were first introduced to England by?
    A William Shakespeare
    B Sir Thomas Wyatt
    C William Wordsworth
    D Petrarch