Analysis of Sweet Love, Sweet Thorn, When Lightly To My Heart
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)
Sweet love, sweet thorn, when lightly to my heart
I took your thrust, whereby I since am slain,
And lie disheveled in the grass apart,
A sodden thing bedrenched by tears and rain,
While rainy evening drips to misty night,
And misty night to cloudy morning clears,
And clouds disperse across the gathering light,
And birds grow noisy, and the sun appears
Had I bethought me then, sweet love, sweet thorn,
How sharp an anguish even at the best,
When all's requited and the future sworn,
The happy Hour can leave within the breast,
I had not so come running at the call
Of one whoe loves me little, if at all.
Scheme | ABABCDCDEFEFGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Shakespearean sonnet |
Metre | 1111110111 1111011111 0101000101 010111101 1101011101 0101110101 01010101001 0111000101 111111111 1111010101 11100101 01010110101 1111110101 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 601 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 476 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 112 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 138 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Sweet Love, Sweet Thorn, When Lightly To My Heart" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9455/sweet-love%2C-sweet-thorn%2C-when-lightly-to-my-heart>.
Discuss this Edna St. Vincent Millay poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In