Analysis of Sonnet XI: O! Reason!
Mary Darby Robinson 1757 (England) – 1800 (England)
O! Reason! vaunted Sovreign of the mind!
Thou pompous vision with a sounding name!
Can'st thou, the soul's rebellious passions tame!
Can'st thou in spells the vagrant fancy bind?
Ah, no! capricious as the wav'ring wind,
Are sighs of Love that dim thy boasted flame,
While Folly's torch consumes the wreath of fame,
And Pleasure's hands the sheaves of truth unbind.
Press'd by the storms of Fate, hope shrinks and dies;
Frenzy darts forth in mightiest ills array'd;
Around thy throne destructive tumults rise,
And hell-fraught jealousies, thy rights invade!
Then, what art thou? O! Idol of the wise!
A visionary theme!--a gorgeous shade!
Scheme | ABBAABBACDCDCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101101 1101010101 11101010101 11101010101 110101011 1111111101 111010111 01101111 1101111101 10110100101 011101011 0111001101 1111110101 010010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 632 |
Words | 107 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 497 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 104 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 42 Views
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"Sonnet XI: O! Reason!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26787/sonnet-xi%3A-o%21-reason%21>.
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