Analysis of Sonnet 105: Unhappy Sight

Sir Philip Sidney 1554 (Penshurst, Kent) – 1586 (Zutphen)



Unhappy sight, and hath she vanish'd by
So near, in so good time, so free a place?
Dead glass, dost thou thy object so embrace,
As what my heart still sees thou canst not spy?

I swear by her I love and lack, that I
Was not in fault, who bend thy dazzling race
Only unto the heav'n of Stella's face,
Counting but dust what in the way did lie.

But cease, mine eyes; your tears do witness well
That you, guiltless thereof, your nectar miss'd:
Curs'd be the page from whom the bad torch fell.

Curs'd be the night which did your strife resist,
Curs'd be the coachman which did drive so fast,
With no worse curse than absence makes me taste.


Scheme ABBA ABBA CDC DXX
Poetic Form
Metre 0101011101 1101111101 1111110101 1111111111 1110110111 11011111001 1010011101 1011100111 1111111101 111011101 1101110111 1101111101 1101011111 1111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 643
Words 125
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 122
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
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Sir Philip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. more…

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