Analysis of Sonnet XLI : Through Death to Love

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



Like labour-laden moonclouds faint to flee
From winds that sweep the winter-bitten wold,—
Like multiform circumfluence manifold
Of night's flood-tide,—like terrors that agree
Of hoarse-tongued fire and inarticulate sea,—
Even such, within some glass dimmed by our breath,
Our hearts discern wild images of Death,
Shadows and shoals that edge eternity.
Howbeit athwart Death's imminent shade doth soar
One Power, than flow of stream or flight of dove
Sweeter to glide around, to brood above.
Tell me, my heart,—what angel-greeted door
Or threshold of wing-winnowed threshing-floor
Hath guest fire-fledged as thine, whose lord is Love?


Scheme ABBAACCADEEDDE
Poetic Form
Metre 11101111 1111010101 11110 1111110101 111100001001 101011111101 10101110011 101110100 1011100111 11011111111 1011011101 1111110101 1111111 11101111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 636
Words 101
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 511
Words per stanza (avg) 95
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

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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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