Analysis of Sonnet XX: Gracious Moonlight
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
Even as the moon grows queenlier in mid-space
When the sky darkens, and her cloud-rapt car
Thrills with intenser radiance from afar,—
So lambent, lady, beams thy sovereign grace
When the drear soul desires thee. Of that face
What shall be said,—which, like a governing star,
Gathers and garners from all things that are
Their silent penetrative loveliness?
O'er water-daisies and wild waifs of Spring,
There where the iris rears its gold-crowned sheaf
With flowering rush and sceptred arrow-leaf,
So have I marked Queen Dian, in bright ring
Of cloud above and wave below, take wing
And chase night's gloom, as thou the spirit's grief.
Scheme | ABBAABBACDDCCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010111011 101100111 111100101 111011101 10110101111 11111101001 1001011111 11011 10101001111 1101011111 1100101101 1111110011 1101010111 0111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 633 |
Words | 109 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 505 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 105 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 85 Views
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"Sonnet XX: Gracious Moonlight" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7686/sonnet-xx%3A--gracious-moonlight>.
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