Analysis of Sonnet 74: I Never Drank

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



I never drank of Aganippe well,
Nor ever did in shade of Tempe sit,
And Muses scorn with vulgar brains to swell;
Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit.

Some do I hear of poets' fury tell,
But (God wot) wot not what they mean by it:
And this I swear by blackest brook of hell,
I am no pick-purse of another's wit.

How fall it then, that with so smooth an ease
My thoughts I speak, and what I speak doth flow
In verse, and that my verse best wits doth please?

Guess we the cause. 'What, it it thus?' Fie, no.
'Or so?' Much less. 'How then?' Sure, thus it is:
My lips are sweet, inspir'd with Stella's kiss.


Scheme ABAB ABAB CDC DXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1101111 1101011101 0101110111 1101110101 1111110101 1111111111 0111110111 1111110101 1111111111 1111011111 0101111111 1101111111 1111111111 11110101101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 612
Words 126
Sentences 11
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 112
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 06, 2023

37 sec read
104

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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