Sonnet
Once in a dream (for once I dreamed of you)We stood together in an open field;Above our heads two swift-winged pigeons wheeled,Sporting at ease and courting full in view.When loftier still a broadening darkness flew,Down-swooping, and a ravenous hawk revealed;Too weak to fight, too fond to fly, they yield;So farewell life and love and pleasures new.Then as their plumes fell fluttering to the ground,Their snow-white plumage flecked with crimson drops,I wept, and thought I turned towards you to weep:But you were gone; while rustling hedgerow topsBent in a wind which bore to me a soundOf far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sheep.
Words in this poem
- hedgerow n.
- A row of shrubs, or trees, planted for inclosure or separation of fields.
- bleat v. i.
- To make the noise of, or one like that of, a sheep; to cry like a sheep or calf. [OE. bleten, AS. bl; akin to D. blaten, bleeten, OHG. blazan, plazan; prob. of imitative origin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #16950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Christina Rossetti, Sonnet, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/sonnet-7.html, id L04310.
Form and metre
Sonnet is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDEDCE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 14% 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 ABBAABBACDEDCE youA · fieldB · wheeledB · viewA · flewA · revealedB · yieldB · newA · groundC · dropsD · weepE · topsD · soundC · sheepE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Once in a dream (for once I dreamed of you) | 10 | ·········· |
| We stood together in an open field; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Above our heads two swift-winged pigeons wheeled, | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Sporting at ease and courting full in view. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| When loftier still a broadening darkness flew, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Down-swooping, and a ravenous hawk revealed; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Too weak to fight, too fond to fly, they yield; | 10 | ·········· |
| So farewell life and love and pleasures new. | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Then as their plumes fell fluttering to the ground, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Their snow-white plumage flecked with crimson drops, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I wept, and thought I turned towards you to weep: | 10 | ·········· |
| But you were gone; while rustling hedgerow tops | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Bent in a wind which bore to me a sound | 10 | ·········· |
| Of far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sheep. | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
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.