Analysis of Sonnet LXXXV: Vain Virtues
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
What is the sorriest thing that enters Hell?
None of the sins,—but this and that fair deed
Which a soul's sin at length could supersede.
These yet are virgins, whom death's timely knell
Might once have sainted; whom the fiends compel
Together now, in snake-bound shuddering sheaves
Of anguish, while the pit's pollution leaves
Their refuse maidenhood abominable.
Night sucks them down, the tribute of the pit,
Whose names, half entered in the book of Life,
Were God's desire at noon. And as their hair
And eyes sink last, the Torturer deigns no whit
To gaze, but, yearning, waits his destined wife,
The Sin still blithe on earth that sent them there.
Scheme | ABBAACCDEFGEFG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111101 1101110111 101111101 1111011101 1111010101 01010111001 1101010101 101101000 1111010101 1111000111 01010110111 01110100111 1111011101 0111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 647 |
Words | 115 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 514 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 112 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 128 Views
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"Sonnet LXXXV: Vain Virtues" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7653/sonnet-lxxxv%3A--vain-virtues>.
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