Sonnet 15
You that do search for every purling spring,Which from the rybs of old Parnassus flowes,And every flower (not sweete perhaps) which growesNeere there about, into your Poesie wring.Ye that do Dictionaries method bringInto your rymes, running in ratling rowes,You that poore Petrarchs long deceased woesWith new borne sighes, & devised wit do sing;You take wrong wayes, those far-fet helps be such,As doe bewray a want of inward tutch,And sure at length stolne goods doe come to light.But if both for your love and skill you name,You seeke to nurse at fullest brest of Fame,Stella behold and then begin t’endite.
Words in this poem
- purling n.
- The motion of a small stream running among obstructions; also, the murmur it makes in so doing. [See 3d Purl.]
- parnassus n.
- A mountain in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and famous for a temple of Apollo and for the Castalian spring. Grass of Parnassus. (Bot.) See under Grass, and Parnassia.
- bewray v. t.
- To expose; to reveal; to disclose; to betray. [OE. bewraien, biwreyen; pref. be- + AS. wr to accuse, betray; akin to OS. wr, OHG. ruog, G. rügen, Icel. rægja, Goth. wr to accuse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 15 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 15, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-15.html, id L04771.
Form and metre
Sonnet 15 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACCDEED springA · flowesB · growesB · wringA · bringA · rowesB · woesB · singA · suchC · tutchC · lightD · nameE · fameE · t'enditeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You that do search for every purling spring, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Which from the rybs of old Parnassus flowes, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And every flower (not sweete perhaps) which growes | 10 | ·/˘/··˘/·· |
| Neere there about, into your Poesie wring. | 10 | ·········· |
| Ye that do Dictionaries method bring | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Into your rymes, running in ratling rowes, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| You that poore Petrarchs long deceased woes | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| With new borne sighes, & devised wit do sing; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| You take wrong wayes, those far-fet helps be such, | 10 | ·········· |
| As doe bewray a want of inward tutch, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And sure at length stolne goods doe come to light. | 10 | ·········· |
| But if both for your love and skill you name, | 10 | ·········· |
| You seeke to nurse at fullest brest of Fame, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Stella behold and then begin t’endite. | 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.