Sonnet
I touched the heart that loved me as a playerTouches a lyre; content with my poor skillNo touch save mine knew my beloved (and stillI thought at times: Is there no sweet lost airOld loves could wake in him, I cannot share?).Oh, he alone, alone could so fulfilMy thoughts in sound to the measure of my will.He is gone, and silence takes me unaware.
The songs I knew not he resumes, set freeFrom my constraining love, alas for me!His part in our tune goes with him; my partIs locked in me for ever; I stand as muteAs one with full strong music in his heartWhose fingers stray upon a shattered lute.
Words in this poem
- unaware a.
- Not aware; not noticing; giving no heed; thoughtless; inattentive.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1186; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alice Meynell, Sonnet, in Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1186, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meynell-poems/sonnet-2.html, id L12859.
Form and metre
Sonnet is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 64% 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 -AABB-AB player · skillA · stillA · airB · shareB · fulfil · willA · unawareB
- 2 AABCBC freeA · meA · partB · muteC · heartB · luteC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I touched the heart that loved me as a player | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Touches a lyre; content with my poor skill | 10 | /˘··/˘···· |
| No touch save mine knew my beloved (and still | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| I thought at times: Is there no sweet lost air | 10 | ·········· |
| Old loves could wake in him, I cannot share?). | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Oh, he alone, alone could so fulfil | 10 | ··˘/˘/···· |
| My thoughts in sound to the measure of my will. | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| He is gone, and silence takes me unaware. | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| The songs I knew not he resumes, set free | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| From my constraining love, alas for me! | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| His part in our tune goes with him; my part | 10 | ···/······ |
| Is locked in me for ever; I stand as mute | 10 | ·····/···· |
| As one with full strong music in his heart | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Whose fingers stray upon a shattered lute. | 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.