Shakespeare’s Sonnets
1
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s Rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory.
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.
Rhythm has an important role in Sonnet 1. First, we have the iamb-spondee resulting in three stressed syllables in a row in line 5: “thine OWN BRIGHT EYES,” so effective after the regular iambic pentameter of all that precedes it. There are three more just like this, in lines 8, 9 and 11 (“THY SWEET SELF,” the WORLD’S FRESH ORnaMENT,” “thy OWN BUD BURiest”). They all slow down the tempo, focusing attention on them. The first one, in line 5, is followed by a trochee in the first syllable of the next line, followed by a regular iamb, giving a flowing rhythm: “FEED’ST thy lights FLAME.” This combination will be repeated frequently, as it is in the very next line, line 9, and twice in the couplet. We have: “MAKing a FAmine,” “THOU that art NOW,” “PItythe WORLD,” and especially the last one in the middle of the last line: “To EAT the WORLD’S DUE, by the GRAVE and THEE,” building the stress up to that last one, emphasizing the clinching couplet.
2
When forty Winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery so gaz’d on now,
Will be a totter’d weed of small worth held.
Then being ask’d, where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say within thine own deep sunken eyes
Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserv’d thy beauty’s use,
If thou couldst answer ‘this fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse’
Proving his beauty by succession thine.
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.
The meter is mostly regular but there is an important break before “so” in line 3 that helps keep the regular iambs from sounding monotonous. A more abrupt change comes in line 8, which begins with an unusual trochee-spondee combination, giving us only one unstressed syllable out of four: (“WERE an ALL-EATing SHAME”). Those stressed syllables lead into and emphasize the normal stress on the second syllable of the following iamb, “shame.” Here is the rhythm: “DUM-te-DUM-DUM-te-DUM.” You can feel the thud landing on the shame. The iambs are only broken again with the trochee-iamb in the beginning of line 12, providing that flowing rhythm again, right through the proof: “PROVing his BEAUtie BY sucCESsion THINE.” We are stopped once more with the unexpected emphasis on “warm” in the couplet, with the three stressed syllables of the iamb-spondee (“and SEE thy BLOOD WARM WHEN”). The iambs then rush on to their conclusion with twenty monosyllables. These metrical changes mirror the tonal changes I hear in W.’s voice.
3
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,
Now is the time that face should form another,
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose un-ear’d womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self love to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother’s glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime,
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
But if thou live rememb’red not to be,
Die single and thine Image dies with thee.
Sonnet 3 has a new metrical element: lines 1 through 4 have feminine endings. This gives the lines a lilting or sing-song quality. Lines with feminine endings always come in pairs in The Sonnets (it’s hard to rhyme a line with an extra beat at the end with a line without one). To my ear, in Sonnet 3 those feminine endings soften the beginning of the argument, making the first quatrain sound gentler, more like Sonnet 1 than Sonnet 2. The couplets of the first two sonnets both start with the gentle rhythm of the trochee-iamb (“PIty the WORLD” and “THIS were to BE”). The couplet in Sonnet 3, however, like the rest of the sonnet, is completely regular. The meter echoes the difference in tone.
4
Unthrifty loveliness why dost thou spend
Upon thy self thy beauty’s legacy?
Nature’s bequest gives nothing but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free.
Then beauteous niggard why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largesse given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums yet can’st not live?
For having traffic with thy self alone,
Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive,
Then how when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable Audit can’st thou leave?
Thy unus’d beauty must be tomb’d with thee,
Which uséd lives th’ executor to be.
There’s something different about the meter in this sonnet. The initial trochee-iamb combination we are now familiar with is used frequently. It starts lines 1, 3, 5, 7, and 12, but it also occurs at the ends of lines 1 and 7, giving those lines a repeat pattern. Listen to them: “UNthrifty LOVEliNESS WHY dost thou SPEND” and ““PROfitless USurer WHY dost thou USE?” (Line 7 has a pyrrhic between the two trochee-iambs, but the sound is not very different—it just makes the pause after the sixth syllable a bit stronger.) Note the repeated phrase why dost thou. This phrase is used a third time, in line 5, where it is followed by a two-syllable word and so demands a different rhythm. I find these lines arresting. They emphasize those negative attributes, unthrifty loveliness, beauteous niggard, and profitless usurer.All the other lines are written in regular iambic pentameter (which serves to set these lines off even more) except for line 12. I read this as a line that starts with a heavy emphasis—two back-to-back trochees. Here’s the rhythm as I read it: DUM-te-DUM-te-te-DUM-te-DUM-te-DUM. Do you hear an echo of those previous irregular lines in this sonnet? I do—it’s that DUM-te-te-DUM caused by the trochee in the middle of the line. The result is an echo of those negative emphases, this time on audit—“WHAT acCEPtable AUdit CANST thou GIVE?” (capitalized and italicized in the original text). This is arguably one of the most important words in the sonnet. [Note: Many editors and linguists disagree with my reading of line 12 because they would accent acceptable on the first and third syllables. They argue that adjectives ending in -able were more often accented on the first syllable, but although there are some words with specific contemporary references to such pronunciation, others are also accented on the second syllable, and examples of accents on the first and third syllable are lacking. The evidence in the plays relies on assuming either a regular pentameter line or the absence of a pause before the word. When I read this sonnet I always read the word with its modern pronunciation. I think it sounds better.] In lines 5 and 6, beauteous and bounteous both are pronounced with two syllables: “beau-tyus” and “boun-tyus.” But these words could also have three syllables in another line. If you are interested in how words were pronounced in Shakespeare’s day, see Introductory notes and Cercignani, Shakespeare’s Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation (see Reading List). But be prepared for some dense reading.
5
Those hours that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,
Will play the tyrants to the very same,
And that unfair which fairly doth excel.
For never resting time leads Summer on
To hideous winter and confounds him there,
Sap check’d with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o’er-snow’d and bareness everywhere.
Then were not summer’s distillation left,
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
Beauty’s effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor no remembrance what it was.
But flowers distill’d though they with winter meet,
Leese but their show, their substance still lives sweet.
Double sonnet to be read with Sonnet 6.
6
Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface,
In thee thy summer ere thou be distill’d:
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place,
With beauty’s treasure ere it be self kill’d.
That use is not forbidden usury,
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
That’s for thy self to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier be it ten for one.
Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigur’d thee,
Then what could death do if thou should’st depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity?
Be not self-will’d for thou art much too fair,
To be death’s conquest and make worms thine heir.
Sonnet 5 has a new element of verse: line 5 does not end in a pause—its sense continues on without a breath to the next line. The balance between emphasizing words based on rhyme versus grammar can be tricky, but when enjambed lines like this are done well, the effect is not unlike that of alliteration. Only lines 8 and 11 are irregular: both start with trochees and both start with the word “beauty.” [Note: In line 1, hours is pronounces as two syllables instead of one (“how-ers”) and prisoner in line 10 is pronounced as two instead of three (“pris-’ner”).
All the lines in Sonnet 6 are regular except for line 12, which starts with a trochee-iamb (we’ll get back to this line later). [Note: happier, is pronounced as two syllables in lines 8 and 9 (“hap-pyer”).] Let’s start with line 7 and see how the rhythm affects the “tens”:
That’s FOR thy SELF to BREED anOTHer THEE,
Or TEN times HAPpier BE it TEN for ONE.
Ten TIMES thy SELF were HAPpier THAN thou ART,
If TEN of THINE ten TIMES reFIGur’d THEE,
The regularity makes this a quiet sonnet. It puts a damper on the emphases. Those “tens” don’t sound so insistent to me. What about the irregular line 12? The stresses emphasize the first and third words, which are also emphasized by alliteration; “LEAVing thee LIVing.” An emphasis on living that comes just before the mention of death’s conquest in the couplet.
7
Lo in the Orient when the gracious light
Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
Doth homage to his new appearing sight,
Serving with looks his sacred majesty;
And having climb’d the steep up heavenly hill,
Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
Attending on his golden pilgrimage.
But when from high-most pitch with weary car,
Like feeble age he reeleth from the day,
The eyes (’fore duteous) now converted are
From his low tract and look another way.
So thou, thy self out-going in thy noon,
Unlook’d on diest unless thou get a son.
Sonnet 7 is metrically rich. There are three enjambed lines (lines 1, 2, and 11), enhancing the fluidity of the meter that mimics the steady course of the sun. It begins with a trochee-iamb, but an unusual one because it’s not immediately followed by the major pause in the line. Instead, the slurred end of Orient, a single unstressed syllable (OR-ient, with the vowel sounds of “ie” crammed into a single beat), precedes the pause, which breaks the first of what would otherwise be three regular iambs. This emphasizes the stress on when, which helps carry the steady rhythm through the next two lines of ten iambs. The first quatrain ends with another trochee-iamb, this time with the usual pause. This gives balance to the first four lines. The next quatrain’s uphill climb in line 5 is perceptibly slowed by the iamb-spondee’s triple beat in (“the STEEP UP HEAv’nly HILL”). The sun then rushes down in the next line with a spondee-pyrrhic in the middle (“ReSEMbling STRONG YOUTH in his MIDdle AGE”)—the speed of those unstressed beats heightened by the slowness of the double-stress before them. The remainder of the sonnet is a relentless stream of regular iambs straight through the moralizing couplet.
8
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly,
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:
Why lov’st thou that which thou receiv’st not gladly,
Or else receiv’st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well tunéd sounds,
By unions married do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire, and child, and happy mother,
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing;
Whose speechless song being many seeming one,
Sings this to thee ‘thou single wilt prove none’.
.
The meter of Sonnet 8 matches the argument. It starts out highly irregular, with feminine endings in lines 1 and 3 softening the harshness of the strong stresses on the first syllables of three of the first four lines. All except line 4 start with a trochee, all followed by the usual iamb except for line two, which instead starts with two trochees in a row. Let’s listen to those first two lines: “MUSic to HEAR, why HEAR’ST thou MUSic SADly” (DUM-te-te-DUM|te-DUM-te-DUM-te-DUM-te) and “SWEETS with SWEETS war NOT, JOY deLIGHTS in JOY” (DUM-te-DUM-te-DUM|DUM-te-DUM-te-DUM). [Note: The vertical lines show the pauses in the lines—in this case, marked by commas in the text.] Line 5 is even more unusual with repeated pyrrhics and spondees—pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, like doubled-up iambs: “If the TRUE CONcord of WELL TUnèd SOUNDS”: (te-te-DUM-DUM-te-te-DUM-DUM-te-DUM). The meter seems as uncomfortable with the beginning of the sonnet as Y.M. is with music. This is then followed by all regular lines except for feminine endings in lines 9 and 11. It’s as if the sonnet resolves itself harmoniously as it asks Y.M. to do himself. [Note: In line 10, mutual is pronounced with two syllables (“mu-tyal”) and in line 13, being is read with only one (“be’ng”).
9
Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye,
That thou consum’st thy self in single life?
Ah; if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife.
The world will be thy widow and still weep,
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep,
By children’s eyes, her husband’s shape in mind.
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it,
But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unus’d the user so destroys it.
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd’rous shame commits.
Further tying the two sections of Sonnet 9 together is the meter—very regular throughout (see commentary in Shakespeare's Sonnets Among His Private Friends). I read it as perfect iambic pentameter except for the feminine endings of lines 10 and 12. Shakespeare uses feminine endings sparingly. In this sonnet, they break up the otherwise regular rhythm in just the right way, keeping the iambic pentameter from sounding monotonous.
10
For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any
Who for thy self art so unprovident;
Grant if thou wilt, thou art belov’d of many,
But that thou none lov’st is most evident.
For thou art so possess’d with murd’rous hate,
That ’gainst thy self thou stick’st not to conspire,
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
O change thy thought, that I may change my mind,
Shall hate be fairer lodg’d then gentle love?
Be as thy presence is gracious and kind,
Or to thy self at least kind hearted prove.
Make thee another self for love of me,
That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
The meter does some interesting things in this sonnet. The first line has a feminine ending, pairing it with line 3. This softens the shame of line 1, linking the denial of love in that line to the love granted by the many, two lines later. Line 4 is unusual. I find it reads best as regular iambs except for the last foot, which I read as a pyrrhic: “But THAT thou NONE lov’st IS most Evident.” Those unstressed syllables at the end act to soften the line much as a feminine ending would. I find this line awkward to read. As if W. is not sure he wants to say it. The only other irregular lines are 7 and 11, both starting with trochee-iambs. These draw attention to those lines and especially to the words beauteous and presence. Line 11 adds a second trochee-iamb at the end of the line: “GRAcious and KIND.” Beauteous, presence, gracious, kind.
11
As fast as thou shalt wane so fast thou grow’st,
In one of thine, from that which thou departest,
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow’st,
Thou may’st call thine, when thou from youth convertest.
Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase,
Without this folly, age, and cold decay,
If all were minded so, the times should cease,
And threescore year would make the world away.
Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish,
Look whom she best endow’d, she gave thee more,
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish.
She carv’d thee for her seal, and meant thereby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
The meter of this sonnet is fascinating. As in Sonnet 9, we have nothing but iambs throughout most of the poem with the exception of the exceptional line 10. We also have feminine endings, but this time there are six of them. And we have many irregular pauses, consistently marked by the punctuation. The regularity of the first four lines, heightened even more by the feminine endings and the regular and symmetrical pauses after the fourth syllables of lines 2 and 4 (a common position), is abruptly challenged by the multiple, irregular pauses of the following lines. The poem picks up its regularity again, only to crash against line 10: “HARSH, FEAtureless, and RUDE, BARrenly PERish.” The line seems to describe itself. One might be tempted to read the initial foot as an iamb, de-emphasizing harsh, but the commas will not allow such a banal line to exist. This is a sonnet of contrasts: feminine lines, regular lines; regular iambs, irregular line 10; no midline pauses, multiple midline pauses; waning, growth, beauty, harshness, life and death, beginning and end.
12
When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night,
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silver’d o’er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And Summer’s green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do them-selves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow;
And nothing ’gainst Time’s scythe can make defense
Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence.
The meter is mostly regular in Sonnet 12. Lines 5, 8, and 9 stand out. In line 5 there are two back-to-back trochees, placing a strong emphasis on “barren”: “When LOFty TREES I see BARren of LEAVES.” In line 8, the initial trochee-iamb puts emphasis on both “b” words: “BORNE on the BIER.” Having been set up by the alliteration, the same rhythm in line 9 makes us hear the strongest emphasis on beauty, an emphasis that carries through with the alliteration of brave and breed in the couplet.
13
O that you were your self, but love you are
No longer yours, than you your self here live,
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination, then you were
Your self again after your self’s decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honor might uphold,
Against the stormy gusts of winter’s day,
And barren rage of death’s eternal cold?
O none but unthrifts, dear my love you know,
You had a Father, let your Son say so.
All the lines in Sonnet 13 are regular except for two trochee-iambs: the one in the middle of line 7 (“Your SELF aGAIN AFter your SELF’S deCEASE”) and the one at the end of line 9 (“Who LETS so FAIR a HOUSE FALL to deCAY”). With no pauses at the ends of line 1, 5, and 6, I find it hard to find room to breathe when I read this sonnet.
14
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
And yet me thinks I have Astronomy,
But not to tell of good, or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or season’s quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with Princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find.
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thy self, to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is Truth’s and Beauty’s doom and date.
There is a varying rhythm to this poem, slowing down as stressed beats pile up against each other. The sonnet moves quickly along the first quatrain, slows down at the beginning of the second, pausing with the pyrrhic-spondee in “Nor CAN i FORtune to BRIEF MINutes TELL,” then hurrying through the trochee-iamb of line 6 (“POINting to EACH”) through the remaining iambs to point out the thunder, rain and wind in rapid succession. The third quatrain slows again, using spondees twice, first to pause on Y.M.’s eyes (“But FROM THINE EYES”), then to allow W. to “READ SUCH ART” in them. There is then a trochee-iamb in line 13: “of THEE THIS i progNOStiCATE.” Followed by the four-syllable word, it slows down all of line 13, which is promptly followed by five iambs made up of all monosyllables except for the two-syllable beauty.
15
When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth naught but shows
Whereon the Stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheeréd and check’d even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory,
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay,
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
And all in war with Time for love of you
As he takes from you, I ingraft you new.
Double sonnet with Sonnet 16
16
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Make war upon this bloody tyrant time?
And fortify your self in your decay
With means more blesséd than my barren rhyme?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden gardens yet unset,
With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit.
So should the lines of life that life repair
Which this (Time’s pensel or my pupil pen)
Neither in inward worth nor outward fair
Can make you live your self in eyes of men.
To give away your self, keeps your self still,
And you must live drawn by your own sweet skill.
The meter of Sonnet 15 helps make it what I find to be the most beautifully sounding sonnet so far. The feminine endings in lines 2 and 4 give the first quatrain a gentle lilt. Shakespeare then uses spondees to emphasize “That THIS HUGE STAGE,” “the SELFE-SAME SKY,” and the wearing of “their BRAVE STATE OUT” of memory. The beauty of line 6 is incomparable, “CHEERèd and CHECK’d EV’n by the SELF-SAME SKY,” cheered and checked itself by those stressed syllables, only to be ushered away by the initial trochee of line 7, followed by a stream of iambs. Reading line 14 with all iambs, we have emphases on, successively, he, from, I, -graft, new: “As HE takes FROM you I inGRAFT you NEW.”
In the less demanding Sonnet 16, there are four irregular lines, with initial trochee-iambs in lines 9 and 11, a spondee at the end of line 13 (“keeps YOUR SELF STILL”), and the emphatic last line, the stresses landing especially on those last three syllables: “DRAWN by your OWN SWEET SKILL.”
17
Who will believe my verse in time to come
If it were fill’d with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say ‘this Poet lies,
Such heavenly touches ne’er touch’d earthly faces.’
So should my papers (yellowed with their age)
Be scorn’d, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term’d a Poet’s rage,
And stretchéd meter of an Antique song.
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.
The meter of this sonnet is mostly regular, with trochee-iambs emphasizing the beginnings of the first and third quatrains (“WHO will beLIEVE,” and “SO should my PApers,”) and all the power saved for the scorn in line10: “Be SCORN’D, like OLD MEN of LESS TRUTH than TONGUE.”
18
Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate,
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,
And every fair from fair some-time declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d.
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Death shall not brag thou wand’rest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe and eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
. This sonnet shows Shakespeare’s ability to bend the rules of iambic pentameter without breaking them. The first line is unusually irregular: (“SHALL i comPARE THEE to a SUMmer’s DAY?”) as is line 11, beginning as it does with two spondees in a row: (“NOR SHALL DEATH BRAG thou WAND’rest IN his SHADE ”). Yet nothing is stilted or jarring in this poem. The irregular lines sound remarkably like the regular ones, owing to subtle differences among the accented syllables. The resulting mellifluousness appears effortless.
19
Devouring time, blunt thou the Lion’s paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood,
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce Tiger’s jaws,
And burn the long liv’d Phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet’st,
And do what e’er thou wilt, swift-footed time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets,
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen,
Him in thy course untainted do allow,
For beauty’s pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst old Time despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
Let’s look at the irregular lines in Sonnet 19 and what words they emphasize. Line 3 starts with the common trochee-iamb but then a pyrrhic-spondee (like a doubled-up iamb): “PLUCK the keen TEETH from the FIERCE LIon’s JAW.” Line 6 throws in a trochee-iamb toward the end: “And DO whatE’ER thou WILT SWIFT footèd TIME.” The pyrric-spondee in the next line emphasizes the limits of Time’s domain: “To the WIDE WORLD and ALL her FAding SWEETS.” The exception is emphasized by the initial trochee-iamb in line 11: “HIM in thy COURSE unTAINTed DO alLOW.” Finally, the trochee-iamb after the midline pause in the final line places a strong emphasis on ever: “My LOVE shall IN my VERSE | EVer live YOUNG.”
20
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted,
Hast thou the Master Mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object where-upon it gazeth;
A man in hue all Hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
’Til nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick’d thee out for women’s pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
The meter of this sonnet is marked by the exclusive use of feminine endings. The softness that this imparts helps maintain a mildly playful tone, preventing the poem from sounding too bawdy, at least to my ear. Otherwise, I read all the feet as regular iambs except for the initial trochee-iambs of lines 6 and 14.
21
So is it not with me as with that Muse,
Stirr’d by a painted beauty to his verse,
Who heaven it self for ornament doth use,
And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,
Making a couplement of proud compare
With Sun and Moon, with earth and seas’ rich gems,
With April’s first born flowers and all things rare,
That heaven’s air in this huge rondure hems.
O let me true in love but truly write,
And then believe me, my love is as fair
As any mother’s child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fix’d in heaven’s air:
Let them say more that like of hear-say well,
I will not praise that purpose not to sell.
The first quatrain of Sonnet 21 is unremarkable, with only initial trochee-iambs in the first two lines. The second quatrain starts with another trochee-iamb but is dominated by lines with spondees, all bunched together: “and SEAS RICH GEMS”; “April’s FIRST BORN FLOW’RS and ALL THINGS RARE”; and “in THIS HUGE RONdure.” (I would consider all of the spondees in bold optional; you could read each of these feet as iambs without making the lines sound stilted. It’s a question of how much emphasis you place on those first syllables. I think the lines read more naturally with the extra stresses. Compare them for yourself both ways and see what you think.) The remainder of the lines are regular except for the unusual line 10 (with a pyrrhic-trochee-spondee):“ And THEN beLIEVE me, my LOVE is AS FAIR.” [Note: I tried a few different readings for this line (including all iambs) but this is the one that sounds best to me.] The alliteration surrounding the midline pause (me, my) makes us notice the pause, the line, the fair love.
22
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date,
But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee,
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me,
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O therefore, love, be of thy self so wary,
As I, not for my self, but for thee will,
Bearing thy heart which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain,
Thou gav’st me thine not to give back again.
The meter emphasizes the lines most important to understanding this sonnet. The regular line 4 puts emphases on look, death and days, heightening the alliteration. Only when Y.M. turns old, will W. look to death. (Now we recognize how odd that statement was, how out of place to speak of welcoming death as Y.M. ages—see discussion in Shakespeare’s Sonnets Among His Private Friends.) The spondees in lines 8, 9, and 10 emphasize important pronouns: “How CAN I THEN be ELder THAN THOU ART?”; “be OF THY SELF so WAry”; “As I not FOR MY SELF but FOR THEE WILL.” Line 11 then follows with an initial trochee-iamb, “BEARing thy HEART.” The last line of the sonnet makes the point clear: “Thou GAV’ST me THINE NOT to give BACK aGAIN.” The feminine endings in lines 9 and 11 help lighten the mood, preparing the way for the joke.
23
As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put besides his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength’s abundance weakens his own heart;
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say,
The perfect ceremony of love’s rite,
And in mine own love’s strength seem to decay,
O’ercharg’d with burthen of mine own love’s might.
O let my looks be then the eloquence,
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more express’d.
O learn to read what silent love hath writ,
To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit.
I find the rhythms of this sonnet beautiful. The opening softly begins the statement of timidity with the doubled-up-iamb effect of pyrrhic-spondee: (“As an UNPERfect ACtor”), trailing off with the same pattern in the gentle quietness at the end of line 6 (“CEreMOny of LOVE’S RITE”). This is contrasted with the strong spondee placed right between them (“Or SOME FIERCE THING”). Two more spondees emphasize the decay of “mine OWNLOVE’S STRENGTH” and the burden of “mine OWN LOVE’S MIGHT.” The poem continues in regular iambs until the trochee-iamb emphasizes the more that the looks have expressed, glossing over that tongue that hath expressed more. The couplet states W.’s case in ten solid iambs.
24
Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stell’d
Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart,
My body is the frame wherein ’tis held,
And pérspectíve is it best painter’s art.
For through the Painter must you see his skill,
To find where your true Image pictur’d lies,
Which in my bosom’s shop is hanging still,
That hath his windows glazéd with thine eyes.
Now see what good-turns eyes for eyes have done:
Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me
Are windows to my breast, where-through the Sun
Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee.
Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art:
They draw but what they see, know not the heart.
In contrast to the complicated conceits in Sonnet 24, the meter is completely regular, as if any more complications would be too much for one poem. (Line 4 can be read as all iambs by putting the accent in perspective on the first and third syllables instead of the second. Cercignani (39-40) explains the linguisitic basis for this and notes the three other examples in the plays where the word is used and seems to require this accentuation. Reading the word with a modern pronunciation requires only a pyrrhic before perspective—not an unusual pattern, nor a particularly jarring one to the ear: “And perSPECtive is IT best PAINter’s ART.” [Note: This also requires an emendation I first suggested, it is for is it. See Shakespeare’s Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary, 82.] I don’t have a problem with this if it reads more comfortably, but it’s likely not the intended pronunciation.)
25
Let those who are in favor with their stars
Of public honor and proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlook’d for joy in that I honor most.
Great Princes’ favorites their fair leaves spread,
But as the Marigold at the sun’s eye,
And in them-selves their pride lies buriéd,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famouséd for might,
After a thousand victories once foil’d,
Is from the book of honor raséd quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil’d.
Then happy I that love and am belovéd
Where I may not remove, nor be removéd.
The simplicity of rhythm matches the simplicity of diction in Sonnet 25. The irregular lines are lines 5 and 6, both ending with spondees, the latter preceded by a pyrrhic (“their FAIR LEAVES SPREAD” and “at the SUN’S EYE”), line 10, which starts with a trochee (“AFter a THOUsand”) and the feminine endings in the couplet. [Note: We can read line 9 with five iambs by pronouncing warrior as a two-syllable word: “war-yor.”] Despite the simplicity, these minor breaks from regularity change the speed, the pauses, and the location of emphases.