Sonnet 84
I see the house my harte thy selfe containe,Beware full Sailes drown not thy tottering Barge,Least joy by nature apt, (spirites to enlarge)Thee to thy wracke beyond thy limits straine,Nor doe like Lords whose weake confused braine,Not pointing to fit folks each undercharge,While every office themselves will discharge,With doing all leave nothing done but paine,But give apt servants their due place; let eyeSee beauties totall summe summ’d in their face,Let eares heare speach which will to wonder tye,Let breath suck up those sweetes, let armes imbraceThe Globe of weale, lipps Lov’s Indentures make.Thou but of all the kingly tribute take.
Words in this poem
- beware v. t.
- To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- undercharge v. t.
- To charge below or under; to charge less than is usual or suitable fro; as, to undercharge goods or services.
- totall a.
- Whole; not divided; entire; full; complete; absolute; as, a total departure from the evidence; a total loss. [F., fr. LL. totalis, fr. L. tolus all,whole. Cf. Factotum, Surtout, Teetotum.]
- summe n.
- The aggregate of two or more numbers, magnitudes, quantities, or particulars; the amount or whole of any number of individuals or particulars added together; as, the sum of 5 and 7 is 12. [OE. summe, somme, OF. sume, some, F. somme, L. summa, fr. summus highest, a superlative from sub under. See Sub-, and cf. Supreme.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 84 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 84, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-84.html, id L04840.
Form and metre
Sonnet 84 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 94% 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. 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 ABBAABBACDCDEE containeA · bargeB · enlargeB · straineA · braineA · underchargeB · dischargeB · paineA · eyeC · faceD · tyeC · imbraceD · makeE · takeE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I see the house my harte thy selfe containe, | 10 | ·········· |
| Beware full Sailes drown not thy tottering Barge, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Least joy by nature apt, (spirites to enlarge) | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Thee to thy wracke beyond thy limits straine, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nor doe like Lords whose weake confused braine, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Not pointing to fit folks each undercharge, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| While every office themselves will discharge, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘/·˘/ |
| With doing all leave nothing done but paine, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But give apt servants their due place; let eye | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| See beauties totall summe summ’d in their face, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Let eares heare speach which will to wonder tye, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Let breath suck up those sweetes, let armes imbrace | 10 | ·········· |
| The Globe of weale, lipps Lov’s Indentures make. | 11 | ·······˘/˘· |
| Thou but of all the kingly tribute take. | 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.