Sonnet XXXIII
Time, and thy charms, thou fanciest will redeemYon aweless Libertine from rooted vice.Misleading thought! has he not paid the price,His taste for virtue?--Ah, the sensual streamHas flow'd too long.--What charms can so entice,What frequent guilt so pall, as not to shameThe rash belief, presumptuous and unwise,That crimes habitual will forsake the Frame?--Thus, on the river's bank, in fabled lore,The Rustic stands; sees the stream swiftly go,And thinks he soon shall find the gulph belowA channel dry, which he may safe pass o'er.--Vain hope!--it flows--and flows--and yet will flow,Volume decreaseless, to the FINAL HOUR.
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,]
- decreaseless a.
- Suffering no decrease.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXXIII is in the public domain. This text is taken from Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace, Project Gutenberg ebook #27663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Anna Seward, Sonnet XXXIII, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/sonnet-xxxiii.html, id L20487.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXXIII 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 87%).
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 redeemA · viceB · priceA · streamB · enticeC · shameD · unwiseC · frameD · loreE · goF · belowE · o'erF · flowG · hourG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Time, and thy charms, thou fanciest will redeem | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Yon aweless Libertine from rooted vice. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Misleading thought! has he not paid the price, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| His taste for virtue?--Ah, the sensual stream | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Has flow'd too long.--What charms can so entice, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| What frequent guilt so pall, as not to shame | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The rash belief, presumptuous and unwise, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| That crimes habitual will forsake the Frame?-- | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Thus, on the river's bank, in fabled lore, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The Rustic stands; sees the stream swiftly go, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And thinks he soon shall find the gulph below | 10 | ·········· |
| A channel dry, which he may safe pass o'er.-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Vain hope!--it flows--and flows--and yet will flow, | 10 | ·········· |
| Volume decreaseless, to the FINAL HOUR. | 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.