Sonet 22
An euill spirit your beauty haunts me still,Where-with (alas) I haue been long possest,Which ceaseth not to tempt me vnto ill,Nor giues me once but one pore minutes rest.In me it speakes, whether I sleepe or wake,And when by meanes to driue it out I try,With greater torments then it me doth take,And tortures me in most extreamity.Before my face, it layes all my dispaires,And hasts me on vnto a suddaine death;Now tempting me, to drown my selfe in teares,And then in sighing to giue vp my breath:Thus am I still prouok'd to euery euill,By this good wicked spirit, sweet Angel deuill.
About this text
Sonet 22 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Minor Poems of Michael Drayton, Project Gutenberg ebook #17873; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Michael Drayton, Sonet 22, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/sonet-22.html, id L20598.
Form and metre
Sonet 22 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABABC-C-DEDEAA stillA · possestB · illA · restB · wakeC · try · takeC · extreamity · dispairesD · deathE · tearesD · breathE · euillA · deuillA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An euill spirit your beauty haunts me still, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| Where-with (alas) I haue been long possest, | 10 | ··˘/····/˘ |
| Which ceaseth not to tempt me vnto ill, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Nor giues me once but one pore minutes rest. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In me it speakes, whether I sleepe or wake, | 10 | ·········· |
| And when by meanes to driue it out I try, | 10 | ·········· |
| With greater torments then it me doth take, | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| And tortures me in most extreamity. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Before my face, it layes all my dispaires, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And hasts me on vnto a suddaine death; | 9 | ········· |
| Now tempting me, to drown my selfe in teares, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And then in sighing to giue vp my breath: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thus am I still prouok'd to euery euill, | 9 | ········· |
| By this good wicked spirit, sweet Angel deuill. | 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.