Sonnet
A poet of one mood in all my lays,Ranging all life to sing one only love,Like a west wind across the world I move,Sweeping my harp of floods mine own wild ways.
The countries change, but not the west-wind daysWhich are my songs. My soft skies shine above,And on all seas the colours of a dove,And on all fields a flash of silver greys.
I make the whole world answer to my artAnd sweet monotonous meanings. In your earsI change not ever, bearing, for my part,One thought that is the treasure of my years,A small cloud full of rain upon my heartAnd in mine arms, clasped, like a child in tears.
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-3.html, id L12872.
Form and metre
Sonnet is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 29% 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 ABBA laysA · loveB · moveB · waysA
- 2 ABBA daysA · aboveB · doveB · greysA
- 3 ABABAB artA · earsB · partA · yearsB · heartA · tearsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A poet of one mood in all my lays, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Ranging all life to sing one only love, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Like a west wind across the world I move, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Sweeping my harp of floods mine own wild ways. | 10 | /˘········ |
| The countries change, but not the west-wind days | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Which are my songs. My soft skies shine above, | 10 | ·········· |
| And on all seas the colours of a dove, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And on all fields a flash of silver greys. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I make the whole world answer to my art | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And sweet monotonous meanings. In your ears | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| I change not ever, bearing, for my part, | 9 | ···//˘··· |
| One thought that is the treasure of my years, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A small cloud full of rain upon my heart | 10 | ·········· |
| And in mine arms, clasped, like a child in tears. | 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.