Sonnet 99
Oh teares, no teares, but shoures from beauties skyes,Making those Lilies and those Roses growe,Which aie most faire now fairer needs must show,While grateful pitty Beauty beautifies,Oh minded sighs that from that brest doe rise,Whose pants doe make unspilling Creame to flow,Winged with woes breath so doth Zephire blowAs might refresh the hel where my soule fries,Oh plaints conserv’d in such a surgred phrase,That eloquence envies, and yet doth prayse,While sightd out words a perfect musicke givesSuch teares, sighs, plaints, no sorrow is, but joy:Or if such heavenly sighs must prove annoy,All mirth farewel, let me in sorrow live.
Words in this poem
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 99 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 99, in Astrophel and Stella (1591), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sidney-astrophel/sonnet-99.html, id L04855.
Form and metre
Sonnet 99 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. 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 10.1 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACC-DD- skyesA · groweB · showB · beautifiesA · riseA · flowB · blowB · friesA · phraseC · prayseC · gives · joyD · annoyD · live
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh teares, no teares, but shoures from beauties skyes, | 11 | ·····˘/·/˘· |
| Making those Lilies and those Roses growe, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Which aie most faire now fairer needs must show, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| While grateful pitty Beauty beautifies, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Oh minded sighs that from that brest doe rise, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Whose pants doe make unspilling Creame to flow, | 10 | ·········· |
| Winged with woes breath so doth Zephire blow | 10 | ·˘········ |
| As might refresh the hel where my soule fries, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Oh plaints conserv’d in such a surgred phrase, | 10 | ··˘/····˘· |
| That eloquence envies, and yet doth prayse, | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘···· |
| While sightd out words a perfect musicke gives | 10 | ·····˘/··· |
| Such teares, sighs, plaints, no sorrow is, but joy: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Or if such heavenly sighs must prove annoy, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| All mirth farewel, let me in sorrow live. | 11 | ········/˘· |
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.