Analysis of Silence. A Sonnet

Henry King 1592 (Worminghall, Buckinghamshire) – 1669 (Chichester)



Peace my hearts blab, be ever dumb,
Sorrowes speak loud without a tongue:
And my perplexed thoughts forbear
To breath your selves in any ear:
Tis scarce a true or manly grief
Which gaddes abroad to find relief.
Was ever stomack that lackt meat
Nourisht by what another eat?
Can I bestow it, or will woe
Forsake me when I bid it goe?
Then Ile believe a wounded breast
May heal by shrift, and purchase rest.
But if imparting it I do
Not ease my self, but trouble two,
'Tis better I alone possess
My treasure of unhappiness:
Engrossing that which is my own
No longer then it is unknown.
If silence be a kind of death,
He kindles grief who gives it breath;
But let it rak't in embers lye,
On thine own hearth 'twill quickly dye;
And spight of fate, that very wombe
Which carries it, shall prove its tombe.


Scheme ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKKLLMMAA
Poetic Form
Metre 11111101 1110101 010111 11110101 11011101 11011101 1101111 1110101 11011111 01111111 11010101 11110101 11010111 11111101 11010101 11010100 01011111 11011101 11010111 1111111 111110101 11111101 01111101 11011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 809
Words 154
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 626
Words per stanza (avg) 152
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

46 sec read
35

Henry King

Henry King was an English poet who served as Bishop of Chichester. more…

All Henry King poems | Henry King Books

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