Sonnet 81
Nymph of the garden where all beauties be,Beauties which do in excellencie passe,His who till death lockt in a watry glasse,Or hirs whom nak’d the Trojan boy did see.Sweete garden Nymph that keepes the Cherrie tree,Whose fruit doth far the Hesperian tast surpasse,Most sweete faire, most faire sweete, do not alasseFrom comming neere these Cherries banish mee,For though full of desire, emptie of wit,Admitted late by your best graced grace,I caught at one of them an hungry bit,Pardon that fault, once more graunt me the place,And so I sweare even by the same delite,I will but kisse, I never more will bite.
Words in this poem
- passe a.
- Past; gone by; hence, past one's prime; worn; faded; as, a passée belle. Ld. Lytton. [F.]
- hirs pron.
- Hers; theirs. See Here, pron.
- hesperian a.
- Western; being in the west; occidental. [L. hesperius, fr. hesperus the evening star, Gr. Vesper.]
- alasse interj.
- An exclamation expressive of sorrow, pity, or apprehension of evil; -- in old writers, sometimes followed by day or white; alas the day, like alack a day, or alas the white. [OE. alas, allas, OF. alas, F. hélas; a interj. (L. ah.) + las wretched (that I am), L. lassus weary, akin to E. late. See Late.]
- graced a.
- Endowed with grace; beautiful; full of graces; honorable.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 81 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 81, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-81.html, id L04837.
Form and metre
Sonnet 81 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 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 ABBAABBACDCDEE beA · passeB · glasseB · seeA · treeA · surpasseB · alasseB · meeA · witC · graceD · bitC · placeD · deliteE · biteE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nymph of the garden where all beauties be, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Beauties which do in excellencie passe, | 11 | /˘········/ |
| His who till death lockt in a watry glasse, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Or hirs whom nak’d the Trojan boy did see. | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Sweete garden Nymph that keepes the Cherrie tree, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Whose fruit doth far the Hesperian tast surpasse, | 12 | ·····˘/˘˘··· |
| Most sweete faire, most faire sweete, do not alasse | 10 | ········˘/ |
| From comming neere these Cherries banish mee, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| For though full of desire, emptie of wit, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Admitted late by your best graced grace, | 10 | ˘/˘·····˘· |
| I caught at one of them an hungry bit, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Pardon that fault, once more graunt me the place, | 10 | /˘········ |
| And so I sweare even by the same delite, | 10 | ····/····· |
| I will but kisse, I never more will bite. | 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.