Analysis of Sonnet XI.
Fernando Pessoa 1888 (Lisbon District) – 1935 (Lisbon)
Like to a ship that storms urge on its course,
By its own trials our soul is surer made.
The very things that make the voyage worse
Do make it better; its peril is its aid.
And, as the storm drives from the storm, our heart
Within the peril disimperilled grows;
A port is near the more from port we part--
The port whereto our driven direction goes.
If we reap knowledge to cross-profit, this
From storms we learn, when the storm's height doth drive--
That the black presence of its violence is
The pushing promise of near far blue skies.
Learn we but how to have the pilot-skill,
And the storm's very might shall mate our will.
Scheme | ABCBDEDEFGHIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111111 111101011101 0101110101 11110110111 01011101101 0101011 0111011111 01110100101 1111011101 1111101111 10110111001 0101011111 1111110101 00110111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 615 |
Words | 118 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 490 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 118 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
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"Sonnet XI." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55217/sonnet-xi.>.
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