Sonnet
The worldly prince doth in his sceptre holdA kind of heaven in his authorities;The wealthy miser, in his mass of gold,Makes to his soul a kind of Paradise;The epicure that eats and drinks all day,Accounts no heaven, but in his hellish routs;And she, whose beauty seems a sunny day,Makes up her heaven but in her baby's clouts.But, my sweet God, I seek no prince's power,No miser's wealth, nor beauty's fading gloss,Which pamper sin, whose sweets are inward sour,And sorry gains that breed the spirit's loss:No, my dear Lord, let my Heaven only beIn my Love's service, but to live to thee.
Words in this poem
- sceptre n.
- A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
- epicure n.
- A follower of Epicurus; an Epicurean.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pastoral Poems by Nicholas Breton, Selected Poetry by George Wither, and Pastoral Poetry by William Browne (of Tavistock), Project Gutenberg ebook #22001; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Nicholas Breton, Sonnet, in Pastoral Poems and Selected Poetry (1597–1604), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22001, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/breton-poems/sonnet.html, id L08838.
Form and metre
Sonnet is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-A-BCBCDEDEFF holdA · authorities · goldA · paradise · dayB · routsC · dayB · cloutsC · powerD · glossE · sourD · lossE · beF · theeF
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The worldly prince doth in his sceptre hold | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A kind of heaven in his authorities; | 11 | ···/˘··˘/˘˘ |
| The wealthy miser, in his mass of gold, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Makes to his soul a kind of Paradise; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The epicure that eats and drinks all day, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Accounts no heaven, but in his hellish routs; | 10 | ˘/·/···/˘· |
| And she, whose beauty seems a sunny day, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Makes up her heaven but in her baby's clouts. | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| But, my sweet God, I seek no prince's power, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| No miser's wealth, nor beauty's fading gloss, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Which pamper sin, whose sweets are inward sour, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| And sorry gains that breed the spirit's loss: | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| No, my dear Lord, let my Heaven only be | 10 | ······//˘· |
| In my Love's service, but to live to thee. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.