Sonnet
Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,--no,Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fairThan small white single poppies,--I can bearThy beauty; though I bend before thee, thoughFrom left to right, not knowing where to go,I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor thereFind any refuge from thee, yet I swearSo has it been with mist,--with moonlight so.Like him who day by day unto his draughtOf delicate poison adds him one drop moreTill he may drink unharmed the death of ten,Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffedEach hour more deeply than the hour before,I drink--and live--what has destroyed some men.
About this text
Sonnet 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, in Renascence and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #109, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-renascence/sonnet.html, id L20651.
Form and metre
Sonnet is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE noA · fairB · bearB · thoughA · goA · thereB · swearB · soA · draughtC · moreD · tenE · quaffedC · beforeD · menE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,--no, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair | 10 | ·/˘·˘····· |
| Than small white single poppies,--I can bear | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| From left to right, not knowing where to go, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| So has it been with mist,--with moonlight so. | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Like him who day by day unto his draught | 10 | ·········· |
| Of delicate poison adds him one drop more | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed | 10 | /·˘/·/˘··· |
| Each hour more deeply than the hour before, | 10 | ·/·/˘··/·· |
| I drink--and live--what has destroyed some men. | 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.