Could you help me with the meter of this sonnet?

Question

I know sonnet have to be iambic pentameter, but I'm really bad at finding variations in a sonnet so could someone please please tell me whether there are any and where. I would appreciate it a lot!

WHY, when I gaze on Phaon's beauteous eyes,

Why does each thought in wild disorder stray?

Why does each fainting faculty decay,

And my chill'd breast in throbbing tumults rise?

Mute, on the ground my Lyre neglected lies,

The Muse forgot, and lost the melting lay;

My down-cast looks, my faultering lips betray,

That stung by hopeless passion,--Sappho dies!

Now, on a bank of Cypress let me rest;

Come, tuneful maids, ye pupils of my care,

Come, with your dulcet numbers soothe my breast;

And, as the soft vibrations float on air,

Let pity waft my spirit to the blest,

To mock the barb'rous triumphs of despair!

Answer 1

I'm assuming you are asking about variation in meter.  The beginning of the poem is a beat followed by a trochee.

Why' when-I-gaze' - and then it drops into perfect iambic pentameter.

Until you get to "Mute, on the ground" and again in "now, on a bank" -- but since that pattern appears those three time, it isn't such a jar.

To turn the first four syllables into an iambic meter you'd have to put the emphasis on "when" not "why." And that would distort the meaning terribly. The same with putting the emphasis on the preposition "on" in the other two instances.

Quick hint - prepositional phrases lean to a three-syllable foot, and they slow the meter. You do better to avoid them when ever possible.

Good poem, by the way.  You have a real talent here.

Answer 2

Your sonnet is pretty I do really love it.

I do not find mistakes in it. There is a new school today. The NEW SONNETS BOOK.

I can't remember the author, but I think it will be very easy to find.

Some little errors, are completely acceptable.

Keep going on. You have a real talent.

Read this sonnet anyway:

My Sonnet  



  For years I've wondered, struggled in awe,

How to write a sonnet and do it right.

A sonnet isn't just a fourteen line poem,

And it's not just verses flown in for a whim.

A sonnet let me tell you, isn't that simple,

But could be, if we learn to do it right.

If I research and follow all its rules

I'll do it right, and try to write some more.

‘Cause a sonnet isn't just another little poem,

That we write on 14 lines and in any style.

No, a sonnet is never done in a whim;

A sonnet is: this above, and then more-

A sonnet is not just a poem, but a song!

I can make it rhymed and also make it blank!

Dorian Petersen Potter



LIGHT BRIGHT FOREVER!

Martha, from

Brazil