Analysis of Sonnet XXXIV: The Dark Glass

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



Not I myself know all my love for thee:
How should I reach so far, who cannot weigh
To-morrow's dower by gage of yesterday?
Shall birth and death, and all dark names that be
As doors and windows bared to some loud sea,
Lash deaf mine ears and blind my face with spray;
And shall my sense pierce love,—the last relay
And ultimate outpost of eternity?
Lo! what am I to Love, the lord of all?
One murmuring shell he gathers from the sand,—
One little heart-flame sheltered in his hand.
Yet through thine eyes he grants me clearest call
And veriest touch of powers primordial
That any hour-girt life may understand.


Scheme ABBAABBACDDCED
Poetic Form
Metre 111111111 1111111101 11111110 1101011111 1101011111 1111011111 011111011 0100110100 1111110111 11001110101 1101110011 1111111101 0111100100 1101011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 610
Words 116
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 480
Words per stanza (avg) 112
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
125

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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