Sonnet 98
When farre spent night perswades each mortall eieTo whome nor Art nor Nature granted light:To lay his then marke wanting shaftes of sight;Clos’d whith their quivers in Sleeps armorie;With windowes ope then most my heart doth lyeViewing the shape of darknes and delight,And takes that sad hue, with which inward mightOf his mazde powres he keeps just harmony:But when birds chirpe aire, and sweet aire which isMornes messenger with rose enameld skyesCalls each wight to salute the heaven of blisse;Intombd of lids then buried are mine eyes,Forst by their Lord who is ashamd to findSuch light in sence with such a darkned mind.
Words in this poem
- farre n.
- A young pig, or a litter of pigs. [See Farrow.]
- mortall a.
- Subject to death; destined to die; as, man is mortal. [F. mortel, L. mortalis, from mors, mortis, death, fr. moriri 8die; akin to E. murder. See Murder, and cf. Filemot, Mere a lake, Mortgage.]
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 98 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 98, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-98.html, id L04854.
Form and metre
Sonnet 98 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% 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 -AA--AA--B-BCC eie · lightA · sightA · armorie · lye · delightA · mightA · harmony · is · skyesB · blisse · eyesB · findC · mindC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When farre spent night perswades each mortall eie | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To whome nor Art nor Nature granted light: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To lay his then marke wanting shaftes of sight; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Clos’d whith their quivers in Sleeps armorie; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With windowes ope then most my heart doth lye | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Viewing the shape of darknes and delight, | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| And takes that sad hue, with which inward might | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of his mazde powres he keeps just harmony: | 11 | ···/˘···/˘˘ |
| But when birds chirpe aire, and sweet aire which is | 10 | ·········· |
| Mornes messenger with rose enameld skyes | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Calls each wight to salute the heaven of blisse; | 10 | ····˘/·/·· |
| Intombd of lids then buried are mine eyes, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Forst by their Lord who is ashamd to find | 10 | ·········· |
| Such light in sence with such a darkned mind. | 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.