Sonnet
Three sang of love together: one with lipsCrimson, with cheeks and bosom in a glow,Flushed to the yellow hair and finger-tips;And one there sang who soft and smooth as snowBloomed like a tinted hyacinth at a show;And one was blue with famine after love,Who like a harpstring snapped rang harsh and lowThe burden of what those were singing of.One shamed herself in love; one temperatelyGrew gross in soulless love, a sluggish wife;One famished died for love. Thus two of threeTook death for love and won him after strife;One droned in sweetness like a fattened bee:All on the threshold, yet all short of life.
Words in this poem
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- temperately adv.
- In a temperate manner.
- soulless a.
- Being without a soul, or without greatness or nobleness of mind; mean; spiritless.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
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.html, id L04241.
Form and metre
Sonnet is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABABBCBC-DEDED lipsA · glowB · tipsA · snowB · showB · loveC · lowB · ofC · temperately · wifeD · threeE · strifeD · beeE · lifeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Three sang of love together: one with lips | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Crimson, with cheeks and bosom in a glow, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Flushed to the yellow hair and finger-tips; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And one there sang who soft and smooth as snow | 10 | ·········· |
| Bloomed like a tinted hyacinth at a show; | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| And one was blue with famine after love, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who like a harpstring snapped rang harsh and low | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The burden of what those were singing of. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| One shamed herself in love; one temperately | 11 | ··˘/···/˘˘˘ |
| Grew gross in soulless love, a sluggish wife; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| One famished died for love. Thus two of three | 10 | ·········· |
| Took death for love and won him after strife; | 10 | ·········· |
| One droned in sweetness like a fattened bee: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| All on the threshold, yet all short of life. | 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.