Analysis of Sonnet XV: If That a Loyal Heart

Samuel Daniel 1562 (Taunton) – 1619



If that a loyal heart and faith unfeign'd,
If a sweet languish with a chaste desire,
If hunger-starven thought so long retain'd,
Fed but with smoke, and cherished but with fire,
And if a brow with care's characters painted
Bewrays my love, with broken words half spoken
To her that sits in my thought's temple sainted,
And lays to view my vulture-gnawn heart open,
If I have done due homage to her eyes,
And had my sighs still tending on her name,
If on her love my life and honor lies,
And she th'unkindest maid still scorns the same,
Let this suffice: the world yet may see
The fault is hers, though mine the hurt must be.


Scheme ABABACACDEDEFF
Poetic Form
Metre 110101011 10110101010 110111101 11110101110 01011110010 1111101110 10110111010 01111101110 1111110101 0111110101 1101110101 011101011101 110101111 0110110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 632
Words 119
Sentences 2
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 486
Words per stanza (avg) 117
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
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Samuel Daniel

Samuel Daniel was an English poet and historian. more…

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