Sonnet XI

Louise Labe 1525 (Lyon) – 1566 (Lyon)



O gentle gaze, o eyes where beauty grows,
Like little gardens full of amorous flowers,
Where the bow of Love shoots his sharp arrows
And where my eyes have gazed for many hours.

O savage cruelty, o felon heart
Binding me in so many rigorous chains,
So many are my lovesick tears and pains,
Burning is the ache of my tortured heart.

Thus you, my eyes, so much delight have had,
From looking in his eyes, so much enjoyment;
But you, my heart, the more you see them glad,

The more you languish, the worse your torment.
Then guess if there is any joy for me,
Knowing my heart and eyes thus disagree.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
101

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDDC EXE XFF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 590
Words 115
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3

Louise Labe

Louise Labé, also identified as La Belle Cordière, was a female French poet of the Renaissance, born in Lyon, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, Pierre Charly, and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet. A recent book has argued that the poetry ascribed to her was a feminist creation of a number of French male poets of the Renaissance. more…

All Louise Labe poems | Louise Labe Books

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