Analysis of Sonnet XX
Edmund Spenser 1552 (London) – 1599 (London)
IN vaine I seeke and sew to her for grace,
and doe myne humbled hart before her poure:
the whiles her foot she in my necke doth place,
and tread my life downe in the lowly floure.
And yet the Lyon that is Lord of power,
and reigneth ouer euery beast in field:
in his most pride disdeigneth to deuoure
the silly lambe that to his might doth yield.
But she more cruell and more saluage wylde,
then either Lyon or the Lyonesse:
shames not to be with guiltlesse bloud defylde,
but taketh glory in her cruelnesse.
Fayrer then fayrest let none euer say,
that ye were blooded in a yeelded pray.
Scheme | ABABBCBCDACAEB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111011011 0111010101 0101101111 0111100101 01010111110 0111101 0111111 0101111111 11110111 11010101 11111111 11010001 1111111 110100011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 582 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 463 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 112 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
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"Sonnet XX" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9268/sonnet-xx>.
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