Analysis of Sonnet XIX: On Cupid's Bow
Sir Philip Sidney 1554 (Penshurst, Kent) – 1586 (Zutphen)
On Cupid's bow how are my heartstrings bent,
That see my wrack, and yet embrace the same?
When most I glory, then I feel most shame:
I willing run, yet while I run, repent.
My best wits still their own disgrace invent:
My very ink turns straight to Stella's name;
And yet my words, as them my pen doth frame,
Avise themselves that they are vainly spent.
For though she pass all things, yet what is all
That unto me, who fare like him that both
Looks to the skies and in a ditch doth fall?
Oh let me prop my mind, yet in his growth,
And not in Nature, for best fruits unfit:
"Scholar," saith Love, "bend hitherward your wit."
Scheme | ABBA ABBA CDC DEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 1111010101 1111011111 1101111101 1111110101 1101111101 0111111111 101111101 1111111111 1101111111 1101000111 1111111011 0101011101 10111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 632 |
Words | 125 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 119 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 96 Views
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"Sonnet XIX: On Cupid's Bow" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35360/sonnet-xix%3A-on-cupid%27s-bow>.
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