Sonnet 57
You best discern'd of my interior eies,And yet your graces outwardly diuine,Whose deare remembrance in my bosome lies,Too riche a relique for so poore a shrine:You in whome Nature chose herselfe to view,When she her owne perfection would admire,Bestowing all her excellence on you;At whose pure eies Loue lights his halowed fire,Euen as a man that in some traunce hath scene,More than his wondring vttrance can vnfolde,That rapt in spirite in better worlds hath beene,So must your praise distractedly be tolde;Most of all short, when I should shew you most,In your perfections altogether lost.
Words in this poem
- deare
- variant of Dere, v. t. & n.
- admire v. t.
- To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [F. admirer, fr. L. admirari; ad + mirari to wonder, for smirari, akin to Gr. smi, and E. smile.]
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- distractedly adv.
- Disjointedly; madly.
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
- altogether adv.
- All together; conjointly. [OE. altogedere; al all + togedere together. See Together.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 57 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 57, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/sonnet-57.html, id L20624.
Form and metre
Sonnet 57 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 ABABCDCDEFEF-- eiesA · diuineB · liesA · shrineB · viewC · admireD · youC · fireD · sceneE · vnfoldeF · beeneE · toldeF · most · lost
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You best discern'd of my interior eies, | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| And yet your graces outwardly diuine, | 9 | ···/˘/˘˘· |
| Whose deare remembrance in my bosome lies, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Too riche a relique for so poore a shrine: | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| You in whome Nature chose herselfe to view, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When she her owne perfection would admire, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Bestowing all her excellence on you; | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘˘·· |
| At whose pure eies Loue lights his halowed fire, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Euen as a man that in some traunce hath scene, | 10 | ·········· |
| More than his wondring vttrance can vnfolde, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| That rapt in spirite in better worlds hath beene, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| So must your praise distractedly be tolde; | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Most of all short, when I should shew you most, | 10 | ·········· |
| In your perfections altogether lost. | 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.