Analysis of Sonnet 96: Thought, With Good Cause

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



Thought, with good cause thou lik'st so well the Night,
Since kind or chance gives both one livery,
Both sadly black, both blackly darken'd be,
Night barr'd from sun, thou from thy own sunlight;

Silence in both displays his sullen might,
Slow Heaviness in both holds one degree--
That full of doubts, thou of perplexity;
Thy tears express Night's native moisture right.

In both a mazeful solitariness:
In Night of sprites the ghastly powers to stir,
In thee, or sprites or sprited ghastliness.

But, but (alas) Night's side the odds hath fur,
For that at length yet doth invite some rest,
Thou though still tir'd, yet still do'st it detest.


Scheme ABBA ABBA XCX CDD
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111101 1111111100 110111101 111111111 1001011101 11011101 1111110100 1101110101 010100100 01110101011 011111100 1101110111 1111110111 111101111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 647
Words 112
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 125
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
106

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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