Analysis of Ring Out Your Bells

Sir Philip Sidney 1554 (Penshurst, Kent) – 1586 (Zutphen)



Ring out your bells, let mourning shows be spread;
For Love is dead--
All love is dead, infected
With plague of deep disdain;
Worth, as nought worth, rejected,
And Faith fair scorn doth gain.
From so ungrateful fancy,
From such a female franzy,
From them that use men thus,
Good Lord, deliver us!

Weep, neighbours, weep; do you not hear it said
That Love is dead?
His death-bed, peacock's folly;
His winding-sheet is shame;
His will, false-seeming holy;
His sole exec'tor, blame.
From so ungrateful fancy,
From such a female franzy,
From them that use men thus,
Good Lord, deliver us!

Let dirge be sung and trentals rightly read,
For Love is dead;
Sir Wrong his tomb ordaineth
My mistress' marble heart,
Which epitaph containeth,
"Her eyes were once his dart."
From so ungrateful fancy,
From such a female franzy,
From them that use men thus,
Good Lord, deliver us!

Alas, I lie, rage hath this error bred;
Love is not dead;
Love is not dead, but sleepeth
In her unmatched mind,
Where she his counsel keepeth,
Till due desert she find.
Therefore from so vile fancy,
To call such wit a franzy,
Who Love can temper thus,
Good Lord, deliver us!


Scheme aAxbxbCCDD aaceceCCDD aAfgfgCCDD aafhfhccdD
Poetic Form Etheree  (33%)
Tetractys  (28%)
Metre 1111110111 1111 1111010 111101 1111010 011111 1101010 11011 111111 110101 111111111 1111 111110 110111 1111010 11111 1101010 11011 111111 110101 111101101 1111 11111 110101 1101 010111 1101010 11011 111111 110101 0111111101 1111 111111 00011 111101 111011 111110 111101 111101 110101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,109
Words 205
Sentences 10
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 10, 10, 10, 10
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 219
Words per stanza (avg) 51
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:01 min read
59

Sir Philip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. more…

All Sir Philip Sidney poems | Sir Philip Sidney Books

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