Analysis of Sonnet XLIII
Edmund Spenser 1552 (London) – 1599 (London)
SHall I then silent be or shall I speake?
And if I speake, her wrath renew I shall:
and if I silent be, my hart will breake,
or choked be with ouerflowing gall.
What tyranny is this both my hart to thrall,
and eke my toung with proud restraint to tie?
that nether I may speake nor thinke at all,
but like a stupid stock in silence die.
Yet I my hart with silence secretly
will teach to speak, and my iust cause to plead:
and eke mine eies with meeke humility,
loue learned letters to her eyes to read.
Which her deep wit, that true harts thought can spel,
wil soone conceiue, and learne to construe well.
Scheme | ABACCDCDEFEGBH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011111 0111010111 0111011111 111111 11001111111 0111110111 1101111111 1101010101 1111110100 1111011111 0111110100 111010111 1011111111 111011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 599 |
Words | 120 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 469 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 118 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 117 Views
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"Sonnet XLIII" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9258/sonnet-xliii>.
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