As is the case with the sonnet form, this sonnet is in fourteen lines. The rhyme scheme may vary in different tyes of sonnet, and Keats her uses a scheme of ABBA CDCDCD. The Shakespearian sonnet would normally end with a couplet, but Keats does not do that, effectively using two quatrains followed by a six-line conclusion. The meter for the sonnet is iambic pentameter, with variations that emphasize words and thoughts. For instance, line 10 is "When a new planet swims into his ken," a line that is hard to read in strict iambic pentameter and that begins with a trochee, an accented followed by an unaccented syllable, followed by a spondee, with two accented syllables. Lines 9 and 10 are thought to refer to the discovery of a new planet by Herschel, which Keats knew about at the time. Line 14 also begins with a trochee, emphasizing the...
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