Sonnet XXXVIII: Sitting Alone, Love

Michael Drayton 1563 (Hartshill) – 1631 (London)



Sitting alone, Love bids me go and write;
Reason plucks back, commanding me to stay,
Boasting that she doth still direct the way,
Or else Love were unable to endite.
Love, growing angry, vexed at the spleen
And scorning Reason's maimed argument,
Straight taxeth Reason, wanting to invent,
Where she with Love conversing hath not been.
Reason, reproached with this coy disdain,
Despiteth Love, and laugheth at her folly;
And Love, condemning Reason's reason wholly,
Thought it in weight too light by many'a grain.
Reason, put back, doth out of sight remove,
And Love alone picks reason out of love.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
120

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBACDEFGHHGIJ
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 605
Words 102
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. more…

All Michael Drayton poems | Michael Drayton Books

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