Sonnet 104
Unhappie sight and hath shee vanisht by,So neere, in so good time so free a place,Dead glasse dost thou thine object so imbrase,As what my hart still sees thou canst not spie,I sweare by hir Love and my lacke, that IWas not in fault that bent my dazling raceOnely unto the heaven of Stella’s face,Counting but dust that in her way did lie:But cease mine eyes, your teares doe witnes well,That you guiltles therefore your necklace mist,Curst be the Page from whome the bad torch fell,Curst be the night which did your will resist,Curst be the Cochman that did drive so fast,With no lesse curse then absence makes me tast.
Words in this poem
- curst a.
- Froward; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling. [SeeCurse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 104 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 104, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-104.html, id L04860.
Form and metre
Sonnet 104 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 14% 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 AB-AABBACDCDEE byA · placeB · imbrase · spieA · iA · raceB · faceB · lieA · wellC · mistD · fellC · resistD · fastE · tastE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Unhappie sight and hath shee vanisht by, | 10 | ·········· |
| So neere, in so good time so free a place, | 10 | ·········· |
| Dead glasse dost thou thine object so imbrase, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As what my hart still sees thou canst not spie, | 10 | ·········· |
| I sweare by hir Love and my lacke, that I | 10 | ·········· |
| Was not in fault that bent my dazling race | 10 | ·········· |
| Onely unto the heaven of Stella’s face, | 10 | /˘···/·/˘· |
| Counting but dust that in her way did lie: | 10 | /˘········ |
| But cease mine eyes, your teares doe witnes well, | 9 | ········· |
| That you guiltles therefore your necklace mist, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Curst be the Page from whome the bad torch fell, | 10 | ·········· |
| Curst be the night which did your will resist, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Curst be the Cochman that did drive so fast, | 10 | ·········· |
| With no lesse curse then absence makes me tast. | 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.