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

Samuel Daniel

Samuel Daniel was an English poet and historian. more…

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A Line break
    B Enjambment
    C A turn
    D Dithyramb