Analysis of Sonnet XX: What It Is to Breathe
Samuel Daniel 1562 (Taunton) – 1619
What it is to breathe and live without life;
How to be pale with anguish, red with fear;
T'have peace abroad, and nought within but strife;
Wish to be present, and yet shun t'appear;
How to be bold far off, and bashful near;
How to think much, and have no words to speak;
To crave redress, yet hold affliction dear;
To have affection strong, a body weak;
Never to find, and evermore to seek;
And seek that which I dare not hope to find;
T'affect this life, and yet this life disleek;
Grateful t'another, to myself unkind:
This cruel knowledge of these contraries,
Delia, my heart hath learn'd out of those eyes.
Scheme | ABABBCBCCDCDEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Spenserian sonnet |
Metre | 1111101011 1111110111 11101010111 11110011101 1111110101 1111011111 1101110101 1101010101 101101011 0111111111 1011101111 1010101101 11010111 1011111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 619 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 470 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 112 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 101 Views
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"Sonnet XX: What It Is to Breathe" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34143/sonnet-xx%3A-what-it-is-to-breathe>.
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