Sonnet 49
Stella, the fulnes of my thoughts of theeCannot be stayed within my panting brest:But they do swell and struggle forth of me,Till that in words thy figure be exprest;And yet as soone as they so formed be,According to my Lord Loves owne behest,With sad eyes I their weake proportion seeTo portract what within this world is best.So that I cannot chuse but write my minde,And cannot chuse but put out what I write,While those poore babes their death in birth doe find;And now my penne these lynes had dashed quite,But that they stop his furie from the same:Because their fore-front beares sweet Stellas name.
Words in this poem
- stayed a.
- Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
- behest v. t.
- To vow. Paston.
- penne v. t.
- To write; to compose and commit to paper; to indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 49 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 49, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-49.html, id L04805.
Form and metre
Sonnet 49 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABABABCDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% 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 ABABABABCDCDEE theeA · brestB · meA · exprestB · beA · behestB · seeA · bestB · mindeC · writeD · findC · quiteD · sameE · nameE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stella, the fulnes of my thoughts of thee | 9 | /˘······· |
| Cannot be stayed within my panting brest: | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| But they do swell and struggle forth of me, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Till that in words thy figure be exprest; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And yet as soone as they so formed be, | 10 | ········˘· |
| According to my Lord Loves owne behest, | 10 | ˘/˘·····˘/ |
| With sad eyes I their weake proportion see | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| To portract what within this world is best. | 10 | ·········· |
| So that I cannot chuse but write my minde, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And cannot chuse but put out what I write, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| While those poore babes their death in birth doe find; | 10 | ·········· |
| And now my penne these lynes had dashed quite, | 10 | ········˘· |
| But that they stop his furie from the same: | 10 | ·········· |
| Because their fore-front beares sweet Stellas name. | 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.