Sonnet 20
Fly, flye my friends, I have my deathes wound, flye;See there that boy, that murthering boy I say,Who like a thiefe hid in a bush doth lye,Tyll blooddy bullet get him wrongfull pray.So, tyrant he no fitter place could spy,Nor so farre levell in so secrete stay:As that sweete blacke which veiles thy heavenly eye.There himselfe with his shot he close doth laye.Poore passenger, passe now thereby I did,And staid pleasd with prospect of the place,While that black hue from me the bad guest hid,But straight I saw motions of lightnings grace,And there descried the glisterings of his dart:But ere I could flie thence, it pearst my hart.
Words in this poem
- wrongfull a.
- Full of wrong; injurious; unjust; unfair; as, a wrongful taking of property; wrongful dealing.
- fitter n.
- A little piece; a flitter; a flinder.
- farre n.
- A young pig, or a litter of pigs. [See Farrow.]
- levell v. i.
- To be level; to be on a level with, or on an equality with, something; hence, to accord; to agree; to suit.
- passe a.
- Past; gone by; hence, past one's prime; worn; faded; as, a passée belle. Ld. Lytton. [F.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 20 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 20, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-20.html, id L04776.
Form and metre
Sonnet 20 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABABABCDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 ABABABABCDCDEE flyeA · sayB · lyeA · prayB · spyA · stayB · eyeA · layeB · didC · placeD · hidC · graceD · dartE · hartE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fly, flye my friends, I have my deathes wound, flye; | 10 | ·········· |
| See there that boy, that murthering boy I say, | 11 | ··········· |
| Who like a thiefe hid in a bush doth lye, | 10 | ·········· |
| Tyll blooddy bullet get him wrongfull pray. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| So, tyrant he no fitter place could spy, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Nor so farre levell in so secrete stay: | 10 | ···˘/··˘/· |
| As that sweete blacke which veiles thy heavenly eye. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| There himselfe with his shot he close doth laye. | 10 | ·········· |
| Poore passenger, passe now thereby I did, | 10 | ·/˘·/····· |
| And staid pleasd with prospect of the place, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| While that black hue from me the bad guest hid, | 10 | ·········· |
| But straight I saw motions of lightnings grace, | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| And there descried the glisterings of his dart: | 10 | ·········· |
| But ere I could flie thence, it pearst my hart. | 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.