Analysis of Sonnet XC: “Retro Me, Sathana!”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
Get thee behind me. Even as, heavy-curled,
Stooping against the wind, a charioteer
Is snatched from out his chariot by the hair,
So shall Time be; and as the void car, hurled
Abroad by reinless steeds, even so the world:
Yea, even as chariot-dust upon the air,
It shall be sought and not found anywhere.
Get thee behind me, Satan. Oft unfurled,
Thy perilous wings can beat and break like lath
Much mightiness of men to win thee praise.
Leave these weak feet to tread in narrow ways.
Thou still, upon the broad vine-sheltered path,
Mayst wait the turning of the phials of wrath
For certain years, for certain months and days.
Scheme | ABBAABBACDDCCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101101 10010101 11111100101 1111010111 0111110101 110110010101 111101110 1101110101 11001110111 11111111 1111110101 1101011101 1101010111 1101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 619 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 489 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 112 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 46 Views
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"Sonnet XC: “Retro Me, Sathana!”" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7662/sonnet-xc%3A--%E2%80%9Cretro-me%2C-sathana%21%E2%80%9D>.
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