Analysis of Sonnet 38: This Night While Sleep Begins

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



This night while sleep begins with heavy wings
To hatch mine eyes, and that unbitted thought
Doth fall to stray, and my chief powers are brought
To leave the scepter of all subject things,

The first that straight my fancy's error brings
Unto my mind, is Stella's image, wrought
By Love's own self, but with so curious draught,
That she, methinks, not only shines but sings.

I start, look, hark, but what in clos'd-up sense
Was held, in open'd sense it flies away,
Leaving me nought but wailing eloquence:

I, seeing betters sights in sight's decay,
Call'd it anew, and wooed sleep again:
But him her host that unkind guest had slain.


Scheme ABBA ABXA XCX CXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011101 11110111 11110111011 110111011 011111101 1011110101 11111111001 111110111 1111110111 1101011101 1011110100 1101010101 110101101 1101101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 640
Words 114
Sentences 3
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
57

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…

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    I wandered lonely as a _______ that floats on high o'er vales and hills
    A cloud
    B bird
    C star
    D flower