Analysis of Sonnet XIII: Letters and Lines
Michael Drayton 1563 (Hartshill) – 1631 (London)
To the Shadow
Letters and lines we see are soon defac'd,
Metals do waste and fret with canker's rust,
The diamond shall once consume to dust,
And freshest colors with foul stains disgrac'd;
Paper and ink can paint but naked words,
To write with blood of force offends the sight;
And if with tears I find them all too light,
And sighs and signs a silly hope affotds,
O sweetest shadow, how thou serv'st my turn,
Which still shalt be, as long as there is sun,
Nor, whilst the world is, never shalt be done,
Whilst moon shall shine or any fire shall burn;
That everything whence shadow doth proceed
May in my shadow my love's story read.
Scheme | X ABBACDDCEFFEXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 101 1001111101 101101111 010110111 0101011101 1001111101 1111110101 0111111111 010101011 1101111111 1111111111 1101110111 11111101011 11011101 101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 641 |
Words | 120 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 14 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 248 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
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"Sonnet XIII: Letters and Lines" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28135/sonnet-xiii%3A-letters-and-lines>.
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