Sonnet 82
Good brother Philip I have forborne you long,I was content you should in favour creepe,While craftely you seemed your Cut to keepe,As though that faire soft hand did you great wrong:I beare with envy, yet I heare your song,When in hir necke you did love ditties peepe,Nay, (more foole I) oft suffred you to sleepe,In lillies nest where Loves selfe lies a long,What? doth high place ambitious thoughts augment?Is saucines reward of curtesie?Cannot such grace your silly selfe content,But you must needes with those lips billing be?And through those lips drinke Nectar from that tung,Leave that Syr Phipp lest off your necke be wrung.
Words in this poem
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- billing a.
- Caressing; kissing.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 82 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 82, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-82.html, id L04838.
Form and metre
Sonnet 82 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 ABBAABBAC-C-DD longA · creepeB · keepeB · wrongA · songA · peepeB · sleepeB · longA · augmentC · curtesie · contentC · be · tungD · wrungD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Good brother Philip I have forborne you long, | 11 | ·/˘/˘··˘/·· |
| I was content you should in favour creepe, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| While craftely you seemed your Cut to keepe, | 10 | ·········· |
| As though that faire soft hand did you great wrong: | 10 | ·········· |
| I beare with envy, yet I heare your song, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When in hir necke you did love ditties peepe, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nay, (more foole I) oft suffred you to sleepe, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| In lillies nest where Loves selfe lies a long, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| What? doth high place ambitious thoughts augment? | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Is saucines reward of curtesie? | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| Cannot such grace your silly selfe content, | 10 | /˘···/˘·/˘ |
| But you must needes with those lips billing be? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And through those lips drinke Nectar from that tung, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Leave that Syr Phipp lest off your necke be wrung. | 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.