Analysis of Sonnet LXIX: Autumn Idleness

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)



This sunlight shames November where he grieves
In dead red leaves, and will not let him shun
The day, though bough with bough be over-run.
But with a blessing every glade receives
High salutation; while from hillock-eaves
The deer gaze calling, dappled white and dun,
As if, being foresters of old, the sun
Had marked them with the shade of forest-leaves.
Here dawn to-day unveiled her magic glass;
Here noon now gives the thirst and takes the dew;
Till eve bring rest when other good things pass.
And here the lost hours the lost hours renew
While I still lead my shadow o'er the grass,
Nor know, for longing, that which I should do.


Scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 111010111 0111011111 0111111101 11010100101 1111101 011101101 11101001101 1111011101 1111010101 1111010101 1111110111 010110011001 1111111001 1111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 629
Words 116
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 500
Words per stanza (avg) 114
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

35 sec read
93

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. more…

All Dante Gabriel Rossetti poems | Dante Gabriel Rossetti Books

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