Sonnet 46
Plain-path'd Experience the vnlearneds guide,Her simple followers euidently shewes,Sometime what schoolemen scarcely can decide,Nor yet wise Reason absolutely knowes:In making triall of a murther wrought,If the vile actor of the heinous deede,Neere the dead bodie happily be brought,Oft hath been prou'd the breathlesse coarse will bleed;She comming neere that my poore hart hath slaine,Long since departed, (to the world no more)The auncient wounds no longer can containe,But fall to bleeding as they did before:But what of this? should she to death be led,It furthers iustice, but helpes not the dead.
Words in this poem
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
- triall n.
- The act of trying or testing in any manner. Specifically: -- (a) Any effort or exertion of strength for the purpose of ascertaining what can be done or effected. [From Try.]
- murther n.
- Murder, n. & v.
- happily adv.
- By chance; peradventure; haply. Piers Plowman. [From Happy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 46 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, Sonnet 46, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/sonnet-46.html, id L20620.
Form and metre
Sonnet 46 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 guideA · shewes · decideA · knowes · wroughtB · deedeC · broughtB · bleedC · slaineD · moreE · containeD · beforeE · ledF · deadF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Plain-path'd Experience the vnlearneds guide, | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Her simple followers euidently shewes, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Sometime what schoolemen scarcely can decide, | 11 | /·····/˘·˘/ |
| Nor yet wise Reason absolutely knowes: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| In making triall of a murther wrought, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| If the vile actor of the heinous deede, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Neere the dead bodie happily be brought, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Oft hath been prou'd the breathlesse coarse will bleed; | 10 | ·········· |
| She comming neere that my poore hart hath slaine, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Long since departed, (to the world no more) | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| The auncient wounds no longer can containe, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But fall to bleeding as they did before: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But what of this? should she to death be led, | 10 | ·········· |
| It furthers iustice, but helpes not the dead. | 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.