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
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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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