Analysis of Sonnet 12
Henry Timrod 1828 (Charleston) – 1867 (Columbia)
What gossamer lures thee now? What hope, what name
Is on thy lips? What dreams to fruit have grown?
Thou who hast turned ONE Poet-heart to stone,
Is thine yet burning with its seraph flame?
Let me give back a warning of thine own,
That, falling from thee many moons ago,
Sank on my soul like the prophetic moan
Of some young Sibyl shadowing her own woe.
The words are thine, and will not do thee wrong,
I only bind their solemn charge to song.
Thy tread is on a quicksand -- oh! be wise!
Nor, in the passionate eagerness of youth,
MISTAKE THY BOSOM-SERPENT'S GLITTERING EYES
FOR THE CALM LIGHTS OF REASON AND OF TRUTH.
Scheme | ABBABCBCDDEFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001111111 1111111111 1111110111 111101111 1111010111 1101110101 1111100101 11110100011 0111011111 1101110111 111101111 10010010011 01110101001 1011110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 615 |
Words | 118 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 480 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 118 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 24 Views
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"Sonnet 12" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18266/sonnet-12>.
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