Sonnet XXXVII
While unsuspecting trust in all that wearsVirtue's bright semblance, stimulates my heartTo find its dearest pleasures in the partTaken in other's joys; yielding to theirsIts own desires, each latent wish that bearsThe selfish stamp, O! let me shun the artTaught by smooth Flattery in her courtly mart,Where Simulation's studied smile ensnares!Scorn that exterior varnish for the Mind,Which, while it polishes the manners, veilsIn showy clouds the soul.--E'en thus we findGlass, o'er whose surface clear the pencil steals,Grown less transparent, tho' with colours gay,Sheds but the darken'd and ambiguous ray.
Words in this poem
- courtly a.
- Relating or belonging to a court. [From Court.]
- mart v. t.
- To buy or sell in, or as in, a mart.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXXVII 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 XXXVII, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (1799), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #27663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seward-sonnets/sonnet-xxxvii.html, id L20491.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXXVII 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 wearsA · heartB · partA · theirsB · bearsC · artD · martC · ensnaresD · mindE · veilsF · findE · stealsF · gayG · rayG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| While unsuspecting trust in all that wears | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Virtue's bright semblance, stimulates my heart | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| To find its dearest pleasures in the part | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Taken in other's joys; yielding to theirs | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Its own desires, each latent wish that bears | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| The selfish stamp, O! let me shun the art | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Taught by smooth Flattery in her courtly mart, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where Simulation's studied smile ensnares! | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Scorn that exterior varnish for the Mind, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Which, while it polishes the manners, veils | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| In showy clouds the soul.--E'en thus we find | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Glass, o'er whose surface clear the pencil steals, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Grown less transparent, tho' with colours gay, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Sheds but the darken'd and ambiguous ray. | 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.