Sonnet XXIII

Louise Labe 1525 (Lyon) – 1566 (Lyon)



What good is it to me that once you praised
The golden splendour of my plaited hair,
Or that to two bright Suns you would compare
The beauty of my eyes, from which Love gazed

And shot the cruel darts so expertly ?
Where are you now, tears that so quickly dried ?
Or death, which was to prove you would abide
By oath of love and solemn loyalty ?

Or did you seek from malice to delude,
Slavery by pretending servitude ?
Forgive the thought, this once, my dearest one,

When grief and anger fiercely combine;
I know, wherever you may have gone,
Your martyrdom is as harsh as mine.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

32 sec read
45

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBA CDDC EEX FXF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 571
Words 109
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3

Louise Labe

Louise Labé, also identified as La Belle Cordière, was a female French poet of the Renaissance, born in Lyon, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, Pierre Charly, and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet. A recent book has argued that the poetry ascribed to her was a feminist creation of a number of French male poets of the Renaissance. more…

All Louise Labe poems | Louise Labe Books

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