Sonnet on the Sonnet
Lord Alfred Douglas 1870 (Worcestershire) – 1945 (Lancing)
To see the moment holds a madrigal,
To find some cloistered place, some hermitage
For free devices, some deliberate cage
Wherein to keep wild thoughts like birds in thrall;
To eat sweet honey and to taste black gall,
To fight with form, to wrestle and to rage,
Till at the last upon the conquered page
The shadows of created Beauty fall.
This is the sonnet, this is all delight
Of every flower that blows in every Spring,
And all desire of every desert place;
This is the joy that fills a cloudy night
When bursting from her misty following,
A perfect moon wins to an empty space.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 121 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXABBAAB CDECDE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 588 |
Words | 109 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
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"Sonnet on the Sonnet" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/25983/sonnet-on-the-sonnet>.
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