Sonnet 21
Your words my freend right helthfull caustickes blame.My young minde marde whom Love doth windlase so:That my owne writings like bad servants showeMy wits, quick in vaine thoughts, in vertue lame;That Plato I reade for nought, but if he tameSuch coltish giers; that to my birth I oweNobler desires: lest els that friendly foeGreat expectation were a traine of shame.For since mad March great promise made to mee,If now the May of my yeeres much decline,What can be hop’d my harvest time will be,Sure you say well, your wisedomes golden myneDigs deepe with learnings spade: now tell me this,Hath this world ought so faire as Stella is?
Words in this poem
- coltish a.
- Like a colt; wanton; frisky.
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 21 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 21, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-21.html, id L04777.
Form and metre
Sonnet 21 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% 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 ABBAABBACDCD-- blameA · soB · showeB · lameA · tameA · oweB · foeB · shameA · meeC · declineD · beC · myneD · this · is
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Your words my freend right helthfull caustickes blame. | 10 | ·········· |
| My young minde marde whom Love doth windlase so: | 10 | ·········· |
| That my owne writings like bad servants showe | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| My wits, quick in vaine thoughts, in vertue lame; | 10 | ·········· |
| That Plato I reade for nought, but if he tame | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Such coltish giers; that to my birth I owe | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Nobler desires: lest els that friendly foe | 10 | /˘˘/···/˘· |
| Great expectation were a traine of shame. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| For since mad March great promise made to mee, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| If now the May of my yeeres much decline, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| What can be hop’d my harvest time will be, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Sure you say well, your wisedomes golden myne | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Digs deepe with learnings spade: now tell me this, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Hath this world ought so faire as Stella is? | 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.