Sonnet
Enough of love! Let break its every hold!Ended my youthful folly! for I knowThat, like the dazzling, glister-shedding snow,Celia, thou art beautiful, but cold.I do not find in thee that warmth which glows,Which, all these dreary days, my heart has sought,That warmth without which love is lifeless, naughtMore than a painted fruit, a waxen rose.
Such love as thine, scarce can it bear love's name,Deaf to the pleading notes of his sweet lyre,A frank, impulsive heart I wish to claim,A heart that blindly follows its desire.I wish to embrace a woman full of flame,I want to kiss a woman made of fire.
Words in this poem
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- impulsive a.
- Having the power of driving or impelling; giving an impulse; moving; impellent. [Cf. F. impulsif.]
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, Sonnet, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/sonnet.html, id L08300.
Form and metre
Sonnet is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 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 ABBACDDC holdA · knowB · snowB · coldA · glowsC · soughtD · naughtD · roseC
- 2 ABA-AB nameA · lyreB · claimA · desire · flameA · fireB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Enough of love! Let break its every hold! | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Ended my youthful folly! for I know | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| That, like the dazzling, glister-shedding snow, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Celia, thou art beautiful, but cold. | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| I do not find in thee that warmth which glows, | 10 | ·········· |
| Which, all these dreary days, my heart has sought, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That warmth without which love is lifeless, naught | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| More than a painted fruit, a waxen rose. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Such love as thine, scarce can it bear love's name, | 10 | ·········· |
| Deaf to the pleading notes of his sweet lyre, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A frank, impulsive heart I wish to claim, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| A heart that blindly follows its desire. | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| I wish to embrace a woman full of flame, | 11 | ···˘/·/˘··· |
| I want to kiss a woman made of fire. | 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.