Analysis of Sonnet 78: Oh How The Pleasant Airs

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



Oh how the pleasnat airs of true love be
Infect'd by those vapors, which arise
From out that noisome gulf, which gaping lies
Between the jaws of hellish Jealousy:

A monster, others' harm, self-misery,
Beauty's plague, Virtue's scourge, succour of lies;
Who his own joy to his own hurt applies,
And only cherish doth with injury;

Who since he hath, by Nature's special grace,
So piercing paws as spoil when they embrace,
So nimble feet as stir still, though on thorns,

So many eyes ay seeking their own woe,
So ample ears as never good news know:
Is it not evil that such a Devil want horns?


Scheme ABBA ABBA CCD EED
Poetic Form
Metre 110111111 0101110101 111111101 0101110100 0101011100 1111111 1111111101 0101011100 1111110101 1101111101 1101111111 1101110111 1101110111 111101101011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 598
Words 109
Sentences 2
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 115
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
111

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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