Sonnet (“Could I outwear my present state of woe”)
Could I outwear my present state of woeWith one brief winter, and indue i’ the springHues of fresh youth, and mightily outgrowThe wan dark coil of faded suffering—Forth in the pride of beauty issuingA sheeny snake, the light of vernal bowers,Moving his crest to all sweet plots of flowersAnd watered vallies where the young birds sing;Could I thus hope my lost delights renewing,I straightly would commend the tears to creepFrom my charged lids; but inwardly I weep:Some vital heat as yet my heart is wooing:This to itself hath drawn the frozen rainFrom my cold eyes and melted it again.
Words in this poem
- outwear v. t.
- To wear out; to consume or destroy by wearing.
- mightily adv.
- In a mighty manner; with might; with great earnestness; vigorously; powerfully. [From Mighty.]
- outgrow v. t.
- To surpass in growing; to grow more than.
- sheeny a.
- Bright; shining; radiant; sheen.
- straightly adv.
- In a right line; not crookedly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet (“Could I outwear my present state of woe”) is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Project Gutenberg ebook #8601; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, Sonnet (“Could I outwear my present state of woe”), in The Early Poems (1830–1842), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8601, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-early-poems/sonnet-could-i-outwear-my-present-state-of-woe.html, id L20770.
Form and metre
Sonnet (“Could I outwear my present state of woe”) is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCCBDEEDFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABABBCCBDEEDFF woeA · springB · outgrowA · sufferingB · issuingB · bowersC · flowersC · singB · renewingD · creepE · weepE · wooingD · rainF · againF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Could I outwear my present state of woe | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| With one brief winter, and indue i’ the spring | 11 | ···/˘·˘/··· |
| Hues of fresh youth, and mightily outgrow | 10 | ·····/˘˘·/ |
| The wan dark coil of faded suffering— | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Forth in the pride of beauty issuing | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| A sheeny snake, the light of vernal bowers, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Moving his crest to all sweet plots of flowers | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| And watered vallies where the young birds sing; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Could I thus hope my lost delights renewing, | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| I straightly would commend the tears to creep | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| From my charged lids; but inwardly I weep: | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Some vital heat as yet my heart is wooing: | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| This to itself hath drawn the frozen rain | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| From my cold eyes and melted it again. | 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.