Sonnet 47
Soules joy, bend not those morning starres from me,Where vertue is made strong by beauties might,Where love is chastnes, paine doth learne delight,And humblenes growes on with majestie;What ever may ensue, O let me beCopartner of the ritches of that sight:Let not mine eyes be driven from that light;ô looke, ô shine, ô let me die and see,For though I oft my selfe of them bemone,That through my hart their beamie darts be gone,Whose curelesse wounds even nowe most freshly bleede;Yet since my deaths wound is already got,Deere killer, spare not thy sweete cruell shot,A kinde of grace it is to slaye with speede.
Words in this poem
- ensue v. t.
- To follow; to pursue; to follow and overtake. [OF. ensevre, OF. & F. ensuivre, fr. L. insequi; in + sequi to pursue. See Sue.]
- copartner n.
- One who is jointly concerned with one or more persons in business, etc.; a partner; an associate; a partaker; a sharer.
- cruell a.
- Disposed to give pain to others; willing or pleased to hurt, torment, or afflict; destitute of sympathetic kindness and pity; savage; inhuman; hard-hearted; merciless. [F. cruel, fr. L. crudelis, fr. crudus. See Crude.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 47 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 47, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-47.html, id L04803.
Form and metre
Sonnet 47 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 7% 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 ABB-ABBA--CDDC meA · mightB · delightB · majestie · beA · sightB · lightB · seeA · bemone · gone · bleedeC · gotD · shotD · speedeC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Soules joy, bend not those morning starres from me, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Where vertue is made strong by beauties might, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where love is chastnes, paine doth learne delight, | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| And humblenes growes on with majestie; | 9 | ········· |
| What ever may ensue, O let me be | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Copartner of the ritches of that sight: | 10 | /·˘··/˘··· |
| Let not mine eyes be driven from that light; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| ô looke, ô shine, ô let me die and see, | 7 | ······· |
| For though I oft my selfe of them bemone, | 10 | ·········· |
| That through my hart their beamie darts be gone, | 10 | ·········· |
| Whose curelesse wounds even nowe most freshly bleede; | 11 | ·····/··/˘· |
| Yet since my deaths wound is already got, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Deere killer, spare not thy sweete cruell shot, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A kinde of grace it is to slaye with speede. | 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.