Analysis of Sonnet XVI
Edmund Spenser 1552 (London) – 1599 (London)
ONe day as I vnwarily did gaze
on those fayre eyes my loues immortall light:
the whiles my stonisht hart stood in amaze,
through sweet illusion of her lookes delight.
I mote perceiue how in her glauncing sight,
legions of loues with little wings did fly:
darting their deadly arrowes fyry bright
at euery rash beholder passing by.
One of those archers closely I did spy,
ayming his arrow at my very hart:
when suddenly with twincle of her eye,
the Damzell broke his misintended dart.
Had she not so doon, sure I had bene slayne,
yet as it was, I hardly scap't with paine.
| Scheme | ABABBCBCCDCDEE |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Spenserian sonnet |
| Metre | 1111111 11111111 011111001 1101010101 11110011 1011110111 10110111 111010101 111110111 111011101 110011101 011111 11111111101 1111110111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 566 |
| Words | 107 |
| Sentences | 5 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 14 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
| Words per line (avg) | 8 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 452 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 105 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
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"Sonnet XVI" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9265/sonnet-xvi>.
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