Sonnet XVI
Who shall invoke her, who shall be her priest,With single rites the common debt to pay?On some green headland fronting to the EastOur fairest boy shall kneel at break of day.Naked, uplifting in a laden trayNew milk and honey and sweet-tinctured wine,Not without twigs of clustering apple-sprayTo wreath a garland for Our Lady's shrine.The morning planet poised above the seaShall drop sweet influence through her drowsing lid;Dew-drenched, his delicate virginityShall scarce disturb the flowers he kneels amid,That, waked so lightly, shall lift up their eyes,Cushion his knees, and nod between his thighs.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- kneel v. i.
- To bend the knee; to fall or rest on the knees; -- sometimes with down. [OE. knelen, cneolien; akin to D. knielen, Dan. knæle. See Knee.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XVI 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 XVI, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/sonnet-xvi.html, id L12949.
Form and metre
Sonnet XVI is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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-D-DEE priestA · payB · eastA · dayB · trayB · wineC · sprayB · shrineC · sea · lidD · virginity · amidD · eyesE · thighsE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who shall invoke her, who shall be her priest, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| With single rites the common debt to pay? | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| On some green headland fronting to the East | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Our fairest boy shall kneel at break of day. | 10 | //˘······· |
| Naked, uplifting in a laden tray | 10 | /˘/·˘··/˘· |
| New milk and honey and sweet-tinctured wine, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Not without twigs of clustering apple-spray | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To wreath a garland for Our Lady's shrine. | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| The morning planet poised above the sea | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Shall drop sweet influence through her drowsing lid; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Dew-drenched, his delicate virginity | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| Shall scarce disturb the flowers he kneels amid, | 10 | ··˘/·/··˘/ |
| That, waked so lightly, shall lift up their eyes, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Cushion his knees, and nod between his thighs. | 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.