Sonnet II
Time does not bring relief; you all have liedWho told me time would ease me of my pain!I miss him in the weeping of the rain;I want him at the shrinking of the tide;The old snows melt from every mountain-side,And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;But last year's bitter loving must remainHeaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!There are a hundred places where I fearTo go,--so with his memory they brim!And entering with relief some quiet placeWhere never fell his foot or shone his faceI say, "There is no memory of him here!"And so stand stricken, so remembering him!
Words in this poem
- lied n.
- A lay; a German song. It differs from the French chanson, and the Italian canzone, all three being national. [G.]
- stricken p. p.
- Struck; smitten; wounded; as, the stricken deer.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet II is in the public domain. This text is taken from Renascence, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #109; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sonnet II, in Renascence and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #109, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-renascence/sonnet-ii.html, id L20652.
Form and metre
Sonnet II is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDEECD. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABBAABBACDEECD liedA · painB · rainB · tideA · sideA · laneB · remainB · abideA · fearC · brimD · placeE · faceE · hereC · himD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Time does not bring relief; you all have lied | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Who told me time would ease me of my pain! | 10 | ·········· |
| I miss him in the weeping of the rain; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I want him at the shrinking of the tide; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The old snows melt from every mountain-side, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But last year's bitter loving must remain | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide! | 10 | ········˘/ |
| There are a hundred places where I fear | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To go,--so with his memory they brim! | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And entering with relief some quiet place | 10 | ·/˘˘·˘/·/· |
| Where never fell his foot or shone his face | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I say, "There is no memory of him here!" | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And so stand stricken, so remembering him! | 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.