Analysis of Love Sonnet XVII

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



Beloved, lest I should remember, I
Must swift forget the wonder of last night.
Hot memory would but blacken out my sight
And dull my senses till they seemed to die.
How could I live, remembering that sigh…
That breath…that sob…that all sublime delight?
Eternal joy is death, I think, and might
Not such sweet madness kill me, coming nigh?

I died with you that hour. Or, if not, merged
Myself in you, commingling all my life
Within your own, until I fled and fled
Into your blood; and my pure pulses surged,
Heaped with the wedded bliss of man and wife…
Dying, I lived…and living, I was dead.


Scheme ABBAABBA CDECDE
Poetic Form Petrarchan sonnet 
Metre 011110101 1101010111 11001110111 0111011111 1111010011 1111110101 0101111101 1111011101 11111101111 1010100111 0111011101 0111011101 1101011101 1011010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 596
Words 111
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) 229
Words per stanza (avg) 55
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
50

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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