Sonnet 101
Where be those Roses, which so sweetned earst our eyes?Where be those red cheekes, which fair increase did frameNo hight of honor in the kindly badge of shame,Who hath the crimson weeds stoln from the morning skies?How doth the coullor fade of those vermillion eyes,Which Nature selfe did make and selfe engrave the same?I would know by what right this palenes overcameThat hue, whose force my heart in so great thraldom ties?Gallens adopted sonnes, who by a beaten wayTheir judgements hackney on, the fault of sicknes lay:But feeling proofe makes me say, they mistake it sure,It is but love that makes this paper perfect white,To write therein more fresh the storie of Delight,Whiles Beauties reddest incke Venus for him doth stir.
Words in this poem
- hight v. t.
- To be called or named. [OE. heiten, highten, haten, hoten; also hight, hatte, hette, is called, was called, AS. hatan to call, name, be called, to command, promise; also hatte is calle]
- engrave v. t.
- To deposit in the grave; to bury. [Pref. en- + grave a tomb. Cf. Engrave to carve.]
- thraldom n.
- The condition of a thrall; slavery; bondage; state of servitude. [Icel. . See Thrall, and -dom.]
- whiles conj.
- During the time that; while. Chaucer. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 101 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sir P.S.: His Astrophel and Stella Wherein the excellence of sweete poesie is concluded, Project Gutenberg ebook #56375; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Philip Sidney, Sonnet 101, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-101.html, id L04857.
Form and metre
Sonnet 101 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.8 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 ABBAABBACC-DD- eyesA · frameB · shameB · skiesA · eyesA · sameB · overcameB · tiesA · wayC · layC · sure · whiteD · delightD · stir
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Where be those Roses, which so sweetned earst our eyes? | 11 | ···/˘····/· |
| Where be those red cheekes, which fair increase did frame | 11 | ·······˘/·· |
| No hight of honor in the kindly badge of shame, | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| Who hath the crimson weeds stoln from the morning skies? | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| How doth the coullor fade of those vermillion eyes, | 12 | ········˘/˘· |
| Which Nature selfe did make and selfe engrave the same? | 12 | ·/˘·····˘/·· |
| I would know by what right this palenes overcame | 12 | ·······/˘/˘/ |
| That hue, whose force my heart in so great thraldom ties? | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Gallens adopted sonnes, who by a beaten way | 12 | /˘˘/˘····/˘· |
| Their judgements hackney on, the fault of sicknes lay: | 11 | ·/˘/˘······ |
| But feeling proofe makes me say, they mistake it sure, | 12 | ·/˘·····˘/·· |
| It is but love that makes this paper perfect white, | 12 | ·······/˘/·· |
| To write therein more fresh the storie of Delight, | 12 | ·······/˘·˘/ |
| Whiles Beauties reddest incke Venus for him doth stir. | 12 | ·/˘/˘·/˘···· |
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.