Sonnet XIV
It may be for the world of weeds and taresAnd dearth in Nature of sweet Beauty's roseThat oft as Fortune from ten thousand showsOne from the train of Love's true courtiersStraightway on him who gazes, unawares,Deep wonder seizes and swift trembling grows,Reft by that sight of purpose and repose,Hardly its weight his fainting breast upbears.Then on the soul from some ancestral placeFloods back remembrance of its heavenly birth,When, in the light of that serener sphere,It saw ideal beauty face to faceThat through the forms of this our meaner EarthShines with a beam less steadfast and less clear.
Words in this poem
- dearth n.
- Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. [OE. derthe, fr. dere. See Dear.]
- straightway adv.
- Immediately; without loss of time; without delay.
- reft n.
- A chink; a rift. See Rift. Rom. of R.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XIV is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alan Seeger, Sonnet XIV, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/sonnet-xiv.html, id L12947.
Form and metre
Sonnet XIV is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% 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 -AAABAABCDECDE tares · roseA · showsA · courtiersA · unawaresB · growsA · reposeA · upbearsB · placeC · birthD · sphereE · faceC · earthD · clearE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It may be for the world of weeds and tares | 10 | ·········· |
| And dearth in Nature of sweet Beauty's rose | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That oft as Fortune from ten thousand shows | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| One from the train of Love's true courtiers | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Straightway on him who gazes, unawares, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Deep wonder seizes and swift trembling grows, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Reft by that sight of purpose and repose, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Hardly its weight his fainting breast upbears. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Then on the soul from some ancestral place | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Floods back remembrance of its heavenly birth, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| When, in the light of that serener sphere, | 10 | ·········· |
| It saw ideal beauty face to face | 9 | ··˘//˘··· |
| That through the forms of this our meaner Earth | 10 | ······//˘· |
| Shines with a beam less steadfast and less clear. | 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.