Analysis of Sonnet 5 - I wandered out a while agone,

George Wither 1588 (Bentworth) – 1667



I wandered out a while agone,
And went I know not whither;
But there do beauties many a one
Resort and meet together,
And Cupid's power will there be shown
If ever you come thither.

For like two suns, two beauties bright
I shining saw together,
And tempted by their double light
My eyes I fixed on either;
Till both at once so thralled my sight,
I loved, and knew not whether.

Such equal sweet Venus gave,
That I preferred not either;
And when for love I thought to crave,
I knew not well of whether,
For one while this I wished to have,
And then I that had liefer.

A lover of the curious't eye
Might have been pleased in either,
And so, I must confess, might I,
Had they not been together.
Now both must love or both deny,
In one enjoy I neither.

But yet at last I 'scaped the smart
I feared at coming hither;
For seeing my divided heart -
I, choosing, knew not whether -
Love angry grew and did depart,
And now I care for neither.


Scheme ABABAB CBCBCB DBDBXB EBEBAB FBFBFB
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Metre 1101011 0111110 111101001 0101010 01101111 110111 11111101 1101010 01011101 1111110 11111111 1101110 1101101 1101110 01111111 1111110 11111111 0111110 0101010011 1111010 01110111 1111010 11111101 0101110 11111101 1111010 11010101 1101110 11010101 0111110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 915
Words 185
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 143
Words per stanza (avg) 37
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

56 sec read
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George Wither

George Wither was an English poet, pamphleteer, and satirist. He was a prolific writer who adopted a deliberate plainness of style; he was several times imprisoned. C. V. Wedgwood wrote "every so often in the barren acres of his verse is a stretch enlivened by real wit and observation, or fired with a sudden intensity of feeling". more…

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