Analysis of Love Sonnet XLIV

Zora Bernice May Cross 1890 (Eagle Farm, Queensland) – 1964 (Glenbrook, New South Wales)



Love is the sepulchre of all my sin,
If it be sin to let the body sink
In that slow dying the sick senses drink
That ne’er have felt true Love’s delight rush in.
Hot Vice may sear the bloom of Beauty’s skin
Polluting Virtue with a painted wink,
But Love smiles lightly at such guilt, I think,
And cures corruption e’er her ills begin.

I cannot tell the wonder of desire
That flames my cheek when you are by my side.
Nor dare I speak the secret of that bliss
That sets the senses of my soul on fire.
Ah Love! all my sin vanished into pride
When I drank Heaven from your first pure kiss.


Scheme ABBAABBA CDECDE
Poetic Form Petrarchan sonnet 
Metre 11011111 1111110101 0111001101 1111110110 111101111 0101010101 1111011111 0101010101 11010101010 1111111111 1111010111 11010111110 1111110011 1111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 588
Words 119
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 228
Words per stanza (avg) 59
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
76

Zora Bernice May Cross

Zora Bernice May Cross (18 May 1890 – 22 January 1964) was an Australian poet, best-selling novelist and journalist.  more…

All Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Zora Bernice May Cross Books

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