Analysis of Sonnet XI

Louise Labe 1525 (Lyon) – 1566 (Lyon)



O gentle gaze, o eyes where beauty grows,
Like little gardens full of amorous flowers,
Where the bow of Love shoots his sharp arrows
And where my eyes have gazed for many hours.

O savage cruelty, o felon heart
Binding me in so many rigorous chains,
So many are my lovesick tears and pains,
Burning is the ache of my tortured heart.

Thus you, my eyes, so much delight have had,
From looking in his eyes, so much enjoyment;
But you, my heart, the more you see them glad,

The more you languish, the worse your torment.
Then guess if there is any joy for me,
Knowing my heart and eyes thus disagree.


Scheme ABAB CDDC EXE XFF
Poetic Form
Metre 1101111101 110101110010 1011111110 01111111010 110101101 10101101001 110111101 1010111101 1111110111 11001111010 1111011111 011100111 1111110111 1011011001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 590
Words 115
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 116
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
101

Louise Labe

Louise Labé, also identified as La Belle Cordière, was a female French poet of the Renaissance, born in Lyon, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, Pierre Charly, and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet. A recent book has argued that the poetry ascribed to her was a feminist creation of a number of French male poets of the Renaissance. more…

All Louise Labe poems | Louise Labe Books

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    Which of these famous poems is written in villanelle form?
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    C Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
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