Sonnet XXIII
Even as upon a low and cloud-domed day,When clouds are one cloud till the horizon,Our thinking senses deem the sun awayAnd say «’tis sunless» and «there is no sun»;And yet the very day they wrong truth byIs of the unseen sun’s effluent essence,The very words do give themselves the lie,The very thought of absence comes from presence:Even so deem we through Good of what is evil.He speaks of light that speaks of absent light,And absent god, becoming present devil,Is still the absent god by essence’ right.The withdrawn cause by being withdrawn doth get(Being thereby cause still) the denied effect.
Words in this poem
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- effluent a.
- Flowing out; as, effluent beams. Parnell. [L. effluens, -entis, p. pr. of effluere to flow out; ex + fluere to flow: cf. F. effluent. See Fluent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXIII is in the public domain. This text is taken from 35 Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #19978; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Fernando Pessoa, Sonnet XXIII, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-xxiii.html, id L23652.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXIII is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other English 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG dayA · horizonB · awayA · sunB · byC · essenceD · lieC · presenceD · evilE · lightF · devilE · rightF · getG · effectG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Even as upon a low and cloud-domed day, | 10 | /········· |
| When clouds are one cloud till the horizon, | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Our thinking senses deem the sun away | 10 | //˘/˘···˘/ |
| And say «’tis sunless» and «there is no sun»; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And yet the very day they wrong truth by | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Is of the unseen sun’s effluent essence, | 11 | ···˘/·/˘˘/˘ |
| The very words do give themselves the lie, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| The very thought of absence comes from presence: | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Even so deem we through Good of what is evil. | 11 | /········/˘ |
| He speaks of light that speaks of absent light, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And absent god, becoming present devil, | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Is still the absent god by essence’ right. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The withdrawn cause by being withdrawn doth get | 10 | ·˘/··/˘/·· |
| (Being thereby cause still) the denied effect. | 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.