Sonnet 205: He who proclaims that Love is light and vain
He who proclaims that Love is light and vain,Capricious, cruel, false in all his ways,Ah! sure too well hath merited his pain,Too justly finds him all he thus portrays:For Love is pitying, Love is soft and kind.Believe not him who dares the tale oppose;Oh! deem him one whom stormy passions blind,One to whom earth and heaven may well be foes.If Love bring evils, view them all in me!Here let the world his utmost rigour see,His utmost power exerted to annoy:But all his ire is still the ire of love;And such delight in all his woes I prove,I would not change their pangs for aught of other joy.
Words in this poem
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
- rigour n.
- Rigidity; stiffness. [L. See Rigor., below.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 205: He who proclaims that Love is light and vain is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Sonnet 205: He who proclaims that Love is light and vain, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/sonnet-205-he-who-proclaims-that-love-is-light-and-vain.html, id L13444.
Form and metre
Sonnet 205: He who proclaims that Love is light and vain is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEEFGGF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABABCDCDEEFGGF vainA · waysB · painA · portraysB · kindC · opposeD · blindC · foesD · meE · seeE · annoyF · loveG · proveG · joyF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| He who proclaims that Love is light and vain, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Capricious, cruel, false in all his ways, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| Ah! sure too well hath merited his pain, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Too justly finds him all he thus portrays: | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| For Love is pitying, Love is soft and kind. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Believe not him who dares the tale oppose; | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| Oh! deem him one whom stormy passions blind, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| One to whom earth and heaven may well be foes. | 10 | ·····/···· |
| If Love bring evils, view them all in me! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Here let the world his utmost rigour see, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| His utmost power exerted to annoy: | 10 | ·/·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| But all his ire is still the ire of love; | 10 | ·········· |
| And such delight in all his woes I prove, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| I would not change their pangs for aught of other joy. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
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.