26
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit,
To thee I send this written ambassage
To witness duty, not to show my wit.
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it,
But that I hope some good conceit of thine,
In thy soul’s thought (all naked) will bestow it,
’Til whatsoever star that guides my moving,
Points on me graciously with fair aspéct,
And puts apparel on my tottered loving,
To show me worthy of thy sweet respect.
Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee,
’Til then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.
. We have seen how Shakespeare has used feminine endings to soften sonnets. In Sonnet 26, with feminine endings in six of the fourteen lines, they serve a different purpose, adding to the stateliness of the poem. The only other irregular lines are those that start with trochee-iambs, lines 1, 5, 10, and 13. The feminine ending of line 9 combines with the initial trochee-iamb of line 10 to provide continuous flow, leaving emphases only on “DUty so GREAT” and “THEN may i DARE.” Of additional interest in line 10 is the word aspect. Here we can be fairly certain the accent is on the second syllable, not the first. This is not only necessary for a sensible reading of the meter but also for the rhyme. Since we accent respect on the second syllable, we must accent aspect on the second syllable, or the rhyme is off.
27
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travail tired,
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired.
For then my thoughts (from far where I abide)
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee;
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see.
Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which like a jewel (hung in ghastly night)
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.
Lo thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
Double sonnet to be read with Sonnet 28.
28
How can I then return in happy plight
That am debarr’d the benefit of rest?
When day’s oppression is not eas’d by night,
But day by night and night by day oppress’d.
And each (though enemies to either’s reign)
Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the Day to please him thou art bright,
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven;
So flatter I the swart complexion’d night:
‘When sparkling stars twire not thou gil’st th’ eaven.’
But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
And night doth nightly make grief’s length seem stronger.
Sonnets 27 and 28 are unusually regular, without sounding so. There are only three initial trochees to interrupt the regular lines in Sonnet 27 (in lines 1, 8, and 9). What keeps these sonnets from sounding monotonous and boring? It’s the varying speed with which the syllables are pronounced. When we read the end of the first line, I haste me to my bed, we naturally speed up when we read to my. We do the same thing when we read in my in line 3. When we get to line 4, on the other hand, the parentheses make us pause and we slow down with the word far and linger on abide. We slow further as we read the three-syllable pilgrimage, and the five-syllable imaginary takes a long time to pronounce (the number of syllables always has an effect on speed). We pause once more for the parenthetical (hung in ghastly night) before we speed on to the end with all monosyllables except for beauteous, in this line, pronounced with two syllables.
The same effects, not quite as pronounced, are at work in Sonnet 28. Syllable stress and length (the speed with which it is pronounced) and the length of pauses between them are all important in producing the rhythm of verse lines. The four feminine endings that bring these two poems to a close (lines 10, 12, 13, and 14) are the final touch. Shakespeare uses all of these to keep his iambic pentameter varied and interesting to listen to.
29
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my out-cast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon my self and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the Lark at break of day arising)
From sullen earth sings hymns at Heaven’s gate.
For thy sweet love rememb’red such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with Kings.
The meter of this sonnet is complex. There are a lot of feet with trochees. I count six, including one in the middle of line 3 (the others start lines 1, 5, 6, 10, and 11) and two feminine endings (lines 9 and 11). This is what gives the sonnet the powerful flow that makes it sound so much like a lamentation, especially in the first two quatrains. Feminine endings usually add lilt to a sonnet, but in Sonnet 29 they instead supplement the flow of the trochee-iambs. That flow is held in check by the strong pauses marked by the internal punctuation in lines 6, 7, and 10, and the parentheses in line 11 (all in the original text). There are also two feet with spondees to gently slow down the pace and keep the lines from running away. There’s “MY OUTcast STATE” at the end of line 2 and “Yet IN THESE THOUGHTS” in the beginning of line 9. They act like bookends, bracketing so much between them: the outcast state, the bootless cries, the comparisons to others with better features, more art, more scope, the despondent lack of contentedness—and the flowing speed of the verse. And after those thoughts come the lark, rising from sullen earth to Heaven’s gate with two feminine endings, two trochees and, other than W. pausing for breaths, like the fluttering of the lark’s wings, there’s nothing to stop its journey all the way to the final syllable of the couplet: Kings.
30
When to the Sessions of sweet silent thought,
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste,
Then can I drown an eye (un-us’d to flow)
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan th’ expense of many a vanish’d sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances fore-gone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoanéd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee (dear friend)
All losses are restor’d, and sorrows end.
I find the rhythms of Sonnet 30 fascinating. It’s scattered with irregular lines all over the place. But the stressed and unstressed syllables don’t so much emphasize particular words as they set the pace of the lines. The stressed syllables slow us down and the unstressed ones speed us up. We start right off speeding up and slowing down through line 1: “WHEN to the SESsions of SWEET SIlent THOUGHT.” Interesting how the very same metrical pattern (DUM-te-te-DUM-te-te-DUM-DUM-te-DUM)—sounds completely different in Sonnet 19: “PLUCK thekeen TEETH from the FIERCE LIon’s JAW.” It’s all about the consonants. In Sonnet 30, the alliteration with the sibilant “s” sound, carrying through to the “th” of thought, softens the line and allows us to read it smoothly. In Sonnet 19, the consonants are hard and don’t flow together: p, k, t, f, l, j. You can’t say them without stopping between each one. Meter doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We’ve seen how it’s affected by syllable length, number of syllables in a word, and pauses between words. It’s also affected by the sounds of the words themselves. The irregularities in Sonnet 30 take a pause themselves after line 9 with nothing but iambs from there on—except for a little pause in line 12: “Which I NEW PAY as IF not PAID beFORE.” This change in pace enforces the calmness with which the couplet states its case.
31
Thy bosom is endearéd with all hearts,
Which I by lacking have supposéd dead,
And there reigns Love and all Love’s loving parts,
And all those friends which I thought buriéd.
How many a holy and obsequious tear
Hath dear religious love stol’n from mine eye,
As interest of the dead, which now appear,
But things remov’d that hidden in thee lie.
Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,
Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone,
Who all their parts of me to thee did give,
That due of many, now is thine alone.
Their images I lov’d, I view in thee,
And thou (all they) hast all the all of me.
. Sonnet 31 is very regular. I read all iambs except for the initial trochee in line 10. It doesn’t sound monotonous because of variation in number of syllables and the strong pauses inserted by the internal commas and the parentheses. But the regularity along with the somber tone gives the sonnet an underlying feel of a funeral procession. I feel myself slowly marching along with all those iambs.
32
If thou survive my well contented day,
When that churl death my bones with dust shall cover
And shalt by fortune once more re-survey
These poor rude lines of thy deceaséd Lover,
Compare them with the bett’ring of the time,
And though they be out-stripp’d by every pen,
Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
Exceeded by the height of happier men.
Oh then voutsafe me but this loving thought,
‘Had my friend’s Muse grown with this growing age,
A dearer birth than this his love had brought
To march in ranks of better equipage;
But since he died and Poets better prove,
Theirs for their style I’ll read, his for his love.’
The meter of Sonnet 32 is as humble as its theme with only three irregular lines. Lines 2 and 4 are tied together by their feminine endings and they both start with iambs followed by spondees, emphasizing their important phrases: “When THAT CHURL DEATH” and “These POOR RUDE LINES.” The remainder of the sonnet is composed of iambs until the two trochee-iambs the last line: “THEIRS for their STYLE I’ll READ, HIS for his LOVE.” [Note: In line 8, happier is read as two syllables “hap-pyer.”]
33
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy.
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace.
Even so my Sun one early morn did shine
With all triumphant splendor on my brow,
But out alack, he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud hath mask’d him from me now.
Yet him for this, my love no whit disdaineth,
Suns of the world may stain, when heaven’s sun staineth.
The meter of this sonnet is quite different from anything we have seen so far. There is extensive use of condensed vowels to reduce unwanted syllables—all of the following have only two syllables: many a, glorious, heav’nly, even so, heav’n’s sun. There are also five lines that start with trochee-iambs, including an unusual three-in-a-row (lines 2-4; the other lines are 8 and 14). Also unusual are the dramatic spondee that opens the third quatrain (“EV’N SO”) and the soft feminine endings of the final couplet. These combine to give a somewhat disconcerting flow to this disconcerting sonnet.
34
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o’er-take me in my way,
Hiding thy brav’ry in their rotten smoke?
’Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak,
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace.
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief,
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss,
Th’ offender’s sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offense’s cross.
Ah but those tears are pearl which thy love sheeds,
And they are rich, and ransom all ill deeds.
All the lines in Sonnet 34 are regular except for the initial trochee-iamb in line 4 (“HIDing thy BRAV’ry”) and the spondee in line 6 (“on MY STORM-BEAten FACE”). The meter is as straightforward as the language. Nothing is hidden.
35
No more be griev’d at that which thou hast done,
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both Moon and Sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authórizing thy trespass with compare,
My self corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are.
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
Thy adverse party is thy Advocate,
And ’gainst my self a lawful plea commence.
Such civil war is in my love and hate,
That I an accessory needs must be,
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
The meter does little to limit the progression of Sonnet 35. Emphasis is provided sparingly: two initial trochee-iambs in lines 2 and 3 (“ROses have THORNS” and “CLOUDS and eCLIPses” give way to the echo of “AuTHOrizING” (line 7) with “ExCUsing” (line 9) and the alliteration of authorizing, adverse, advocate, accessory. The emotion is saved for line 13’s dramatic rhythm: “That I an acCESsory NEEDS must BE” followed by the anticlimactic line 14 stated in regular iambs: “To THAT sweet THIEF which SOURly ROBS from ME.” [Note: Most editors and linguists accent accessory on the first and last syllable, making this a dull, regular line. I think it sounds better accented on the second syllable. I don’t think either of the other two examples in Shakespeare read any better accented on the first and last syllable than they do with a modern pronunciation. See Cercignani, Shakespeare’s Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, 43.]
36
Let me confess that we two must be twain,
Although our undivided loves are one;
So shall those blots that do with me remain,
Without thy help, by me be born alone.
In our two loves there is but one respect,
Though in our lives a separable spite,
Which though it alter not love’s sole effect,
Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love’s delight.
I may not ever-more acknowledge thee,
Lest my bewailéd guilt should do thee shame,
Nor thou with public kindness honor me,
Unless thou take that honor from thy name:
But do not so, I love thee in such sort,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
The meter is regular throughout the first 12 lines of Sonnet 36. The rhythm is varied by the multi-syllable words: undivided, separable, acknowledge, bewailèd. The drama is reserved for the couplet where shame and guilt are turned into love and good report: “i LOVE thee IN SUCH SORT, | As THOU being MINE, MINE is thy GOOD rePORT.” [Note: being is pronounced as one syllable.]
37
As a decrepit father takes delight,
To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by Fortune’s dearest spite,
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more,
Entitled in thy parts, do crownéd sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store.
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despis’d,
Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give,
That I in thy abundance am suffic’d,
And by a part of all thy glory live.
Look what is best, that best I wish in thee,
This wish I have, then ten times happy me.
The contorted diction of Sonnet 37 sits unusually comfortably in its simple meter. The list of four virtues in line 5 survives the regular iambs because of the irregularity of the pauses. Line 6 is almost as successful, but line 9 is the star of the show. After the initial reversed stress of line 1, this is the only other irregular line. The iamb-spondee’s three stressed beats near the end of the line do something strange to transform Fortune’s three spites into something that flows lightly away: “So THEN i AM not LAME, POOR, NOR deSPIS’D.”
38
How can my Muse want subject to invent
While thou dost breathe that pour’st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse.
Oh give thy self the thanks if aught in me
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight,
For who’s so dumb that cannot write to thee,
When thou thy self dost give invention light?
Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth
Then those old nine which rhymers invocate,
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to out-live long date.
If my slight Muse do please these curious days,
The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.
The only irregular line is line 6, which starts with a trochee. This is unusual since the previous line has no pause at the end—the flow of the sentence continues on to line 6. That initial stress on Worthy makes the second quatrain even harder to pronounce smoothly than the first. There is a similar problem with the flow from line 2 to 3–where there is also no pause–it’s hard to get your mouth around those successive words verse | Thine. The regular iambs that make up the rest of the sonnet seem to hinder the flow more than enhance it. The stresses don’t seem to fall where they ought to at times. I feel uncomfortable with the meter of this sonnet. I think I’m supposed to.
39
Oh how thy worth with manners may I sing,
When thou art all the better part of me?
What can mine own praise to mine own self bring,
And what is’t but mine own when I praise thee?
Even for this, let us divided live,
And our dear love lose name of single one,
That by this separation I may give
That due to thee which thou deserv’st alone.
Oh absence what a torment wouldst thou prove
Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave
To entertain the time with thoughts of love,
Which time and thoughts so sweetly doth deceive;
And that thou teachest how to make one twain,
By praising him here who doth hence remain.
The sonnet starts out with two lines of regular iambs but then changes into two irregular lines that are barely recognizable as verse: “What CAN mine OWN PRAISE to mine OWN SELF BRING, | And WHAT IS’T but mine OWN when I PRAISE THEE?” After the initial trochee of line 5 (“EVen for THIS”), the remainder of Sonnet 39 is regular until we get to the last line. Once again, the line is very irregular: “By PRAIsing him HERE who doth HENCE reMAIN.” The three lines containing variants of the word “praise” are all very irregular. Are we supposed to be uncomfortable pronouncing Y.M.’s praises?
40
Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all,
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call,
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more.
Then if for my love, thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest,
But yet be blam’d, if thou this self deceivest
By willful taste of what thy self refusest.
I do forgive thy robb’ry, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty,
And yet love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love’s wrong, than hate’s known injury.
Lascivious grace in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites yet we must not be foes.
The meter of this sonnet is mesmerizing. The variety of syllabic stress is greater than usual, making it difficult to decide whether a particular foot is regular or not. However, one can read iambs all the way through except for the initial trochee of the last line, which emphasizes the two strongest words of the poem: kill and spites (“KILL me with SPITES”). The relentless alternation of stress is echoed by the rapid alternation of meanings of love, and the slower alternation of mood. The second quatrain is dramatically set apart by the feminine endings of each line, emphasizing the emotional divisions of this poem: the outburst of the first quatrain, the cold reason of the second, the pathetic forgiveness of the third, echoed, as noted in the discussion, in the couplet’s half-lines.
41
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits,
When I am some-time absent from thy heart,
Thy beauty, and thy years, full well befits,
For still temptation follows where thou art.
Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won,
Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed.
And when a woman woos, what woman’s son,
Will sourly leave her ’til he have prevailed?
Aye me, but yet thou migh’st my seat forbear,
And chide thy beauty, and thy straying youth,
Who lead thee in their riot even there
Where thou art forc’d to break a two-fold truth:
Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
Thine by thy beauty being false to me.
The meter is deceptively regular in Sonnet 41. Nothing but iambs except for two pairs of lines that start with trochees: 5/6 and 13/14. But what is most interesting is how varied the rhythm is despite the otherwise regular meter. This is because of the tempo of the words: we speed up and slow down as we read liberty, sometime, temptation, beauteous, therefore. And how interesting the way therefore is accented differently in successive lines: “GENtle thou ART, and THEREfore TO be WON, / BEAUteous thou ART, thereFORE to BE asSAILED.” Then, emphasizing the change from the excuses of the first eight lines to the ensuing blame, we have the dramatic pause after the second syllable in line 9: Ah ME,! The meter and the rhythm remain regular from there until the final pair of lines starting with trochees in the couplet: “HERS by thy BEAUty TEMPting HER to THEE, / THINE by thy BEAUty BEing FALSE to ME.” Y.M.’s graces are to be won and assailed; they lead him to temptation and falseness.
42
That thou hast her it is not all my grief,
And yet it may be said I lov’d her dearly,
That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,
A loss in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders thus I will excuse ye,
Thou dost love her, because thou know’st I love her,
And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
Suff’ring my friend for my sake to approve her.
If I lose thee, my loss is my love’s gain,
And losing her, my friend hath found that loss,
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross.
But here’s the joy, my friend and I are one,
Sweet flattery, then she loves but me alone.
This sonnet’s sadness is heightened by the feminine endings, six in all (lines 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). The poem pivots around the crucial statement of this sonnet, line 6. This line is extraordinarily irregular, standing in stark contrast to the regular iambs of the first quatrain, themselves intensified by the pair of feminine endings in lines 2 and 4. Line 5 gives little warning of what is to come, starting with the common initial trochee-iamb followed by all iambs and a feminine ending. Line 6 then breaks all the rules, filled as it is with unusual stresses, softened by its feminine ending: “THOU dost LOVE her, beCAUSE thou KNOWST I LOVE her.” The intensity of this statement is underscored by the spondee in the middle of the next line: “And FOR my SAKE EV’N SO doth SHE aBUSE me.” Line 8 then follows the same metrical pattern as line 5, a trochee, four iambs and a feminine ending. This metrically disturbing middle quatrain is followed by a succession of iambs until the ironic emphasis that opens the final line: “SWEET FLATtt’ry…” [Note: Line 6 can be read with five iambs and a feminine ending, but that makes it a flat and almost meaningless line to my ear.]
43
When most I wink then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected,
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow’s form, form happy show,
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to un-seeing eyes thy shade shines so?
How would (I say) mine eyes be blesséd made,
By looking on thee in the living day?
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade,
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay?
All days are nights to see ’til I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
. In contrast to the complicated wordplay, this sonnet’s meter is relatively simple, with one pair of feminine endings (lines 2 and 4) and one irregular line, line 10, with a pyrrhic starting in the second foot leading into the usual trochee-iamb: “By LOOKing on THEE in the LIving DAY.” This combination adds to the flow of the verse as much as the feminine endings. Listen to the rhythm: te-DUM-te-te-DUM-te-te-DUM-te-DUM. That first foot followed by two unstressed syllables sounds a lot like the following trochee-iamb—there is a continuous feel to the flow. Although the sentence structure makes you think line 6 should continue on to line 7 without a pause (making line 7 another irregular line, starting with “To the CLEAR DAY…”) I prefer to trust that comma at the end of line 6 and take a breath, reading line 7 with all iambs: “To THE clear DAY with THY much CLEARer LIGHT.”
44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way,
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth remov’d from thee,
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land,
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But ah, thought kills me that I am not thought
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend, time’s leisure with my moan,
Receiving naught by elements so slow,
But heavy tears, badges of either’s woe.
Double sonnet to be read with Sonnet 45.
45
The other two, slight air, and purging fire,
Are both with thee, wherever I abide,
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker Elements are gone
In tender Embassy of love to thee,
My life being made of four, with two alone,
Sinks down to death, oppress’d with melanch’ly;
Until life’s composition be recured,
By those swift messengers return’d from thee,
Who even but now come back again assured,
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me.
This told, I joy, but then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.
Sonnet 44 has just two irregular lines, the first and last. [Note: In line 2, injurious is pronounced as three syllables (“in-jur-yous”).] There are a lot of unstressed syllables in that first line: “If the DULL SUBstance of my FLESH were THOUGHT.” Listen to the rhythm: te-te-DUM-DUM-te|te-te-DUM-te-DUM. That pause in between those three unstressed syllables in sequence is important to the flow of the line. (I suppose one could put a stress on of, but that would be almost as boring as reading the entire line as iambs.) When I read this line, I feel the sluggishness of the dull substance of the flesh. The intervening regular lines have a liveliness due to varied syllable length. The iambs are only interrupted in the final line by a trochee-iamb to emphasize the cause of the tears: “BADges of EITher’s WOE.”
Sonnet 45 has no irregular lines, also using number of syllables to vary the rhythm. This heightens the comic effect of the couplet that rushes through its simple message in uncompromising iambic pentameter. [Note: Being in line 7 and even in line 11 are pronounced as one syllable. And although some editors disagree, I would pronounce melancholy (the spelling in the original) as three syllables, with the stress on the first and third syllables: MELanCHL’Y. See detailed explanation in Atkins, Shakespeare’s Sonnets; With Three Hundred Years of Commentary, 131-2.]
46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,
How to divide the conquest of thy sight,
Mine eye, my heart thy picture’s sight would bar,
My heart, mine eye the freedom of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
(A closet never pierc’d with crystal eyes)
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
To side this title is impaneléd
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determinéd
The clear eye’s moiety, and the dear heart’s part.
As thus, mine eye’s due is thy outward part,
And my heart’s right, thy inward love of heart.
Sonnet 46 is mostly regular until we get to line 12. The rhythm is varied by initial trochees in lines 2 and 7, interspersed multi-syllable words, and early midline breaks in many lines (marked by the punctuation). The variations in the last three lines emphasize the spoils of war:
The CLEAR EYES MOIEty and the DEAR HEART’S PART
As THUS, mine EYES DUE is thy OUTward PART
And my HEART’S RIGHT, thy INward LOVE of HEART.”
47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other,
When that mine eye is famish’d for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother;
With my love’s picture then my eye doth feast,
And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
Another time mine eye is my heart’s guest,
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part.
So either by thy picture or my love,
Thy self away, art present still with me,
For thou no farther then my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them, and they with thee.
Or if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart, to heart’s and eye’s delight.
The simplicity of construction of this sonnet is matched by its perfectly regular meter. Each line contains five iambs, with feminine endings in lines 2 and 4. The midline pause shifts slightly from line to line, always occurring between the fourth and seventh syllables. Only lines 3/4 and 13/14 have pauses at the same place in consecutive lines, in each case, after the fourth syllable. (Line 4 must be read, “Or heart in love | with sighs himself doth smother,” not “Or heart in love with sighs | himself doth smother.”) Only lines 8 and 12 are made entirely of monosyllables, and no word has more than two syllables. There are no deviations from normal, but there is enough variation to prevent monotony. [Note: I am indebted for the reading of line 4 to W. G. Ingram and Theodore Redpath, eds. 1964. Shakespeare’s Sonnets, London: University of London Press, 110.]
48
How careful was I when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
That to my use it might un-uséd stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust?
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou best of dearest, and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not lock’d up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part,
And even thence thou wilt be stol’n I fear,
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.
Metrically, this sonnet is another tour de force of simplicity: fourteen lines of pure iambic pentameter that can be read without effort in the cadence of conversation. Changing the order of just a few words, one can turn this sonnet into perfectly sensible prose. Doing so reveals the power of poetry as one observes the beauty and emotion evaporate with the verse.
49
Against that time (if ever that time come)
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Call’d to that audit by advis’d respects,
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,
And scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye,
When love converted from the thing it was
Shall reasons find of settled gravity.
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand, against my self uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part.
To leave poor me, thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love, I can allege no cause.
Sonnet 49 is mostly regular with only a trochee-iamb at the beginning of line 4: “CALL’D to that AUDit.” The sonnet reads easily in a conversational tone, with the repeated refrain Against that time slipping into the rhythm without being too intrusive. Different syllable lengths, midline pauses, and multi-syllable words provide a natural variety to the phrases so that one hardly notices the iambic pentameter.
50
How heavy do I journey on the way,
When what I seek (my weary travel’s end)
Doth teach that ease and that repose to say
‘Thus far the miles are measur’d from thy friend.’
The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,
Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,
As if by some instínct the wretch did know
His rider lov’d not speed being made from thee.
The bloody spur cannot provoke him on,
That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide,
Which heavily he answers with a groan,
More sharp to me than spurring to his side,
For that same groan doth put this in my mind:
My grief lies onward and my joy behind.
Double sonnet to be read with Sonnet 51.
51
Thus can my love excuse the slow offense
Of my dull bearer, when from thee I speed,
From where thou art, why should I haste me thence,
’Til I return of posting is no need.
O what excuse will my poor beast then find,
When swift extremity can seem but slow,
Then should I spur though mounted on the wind,
In wingéd speed no motion shall I know.
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace,
Therefore desire (of perfects love being made)
Shall weigh no dull flesh in his fiery race,
But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade:
Since from thee going he went willful slow,
Towards thee I’ll run, and give him leave to go.
These two sonnets read smoothly. Line 7 in Sonnet 50 can be read as a regular line if we accent instinct on the second syllable (for which there is linguistic support and other instances in the plays). There are subtle spondees in each sonnet that can almost be read as iambs: “For THAT SAME GROAN” (Sonnet 50, line 13), “Of MY DULL BEARer” (Sonnet 51, line 2), and “MY POOR BEAST” (Sonnet 51, line 5). The rhythm speeds up and slows down along with the rider and his thoughts in Sonnet 51, helped along by the initial trochees in lines 1, 7, and 9. Compare, for example, Sonnet 50, line 6, Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, with Sonnet 51, line 6, When swift extremity can seem but slow. That four-syllable extremity takes much less time to pronounce than any four syllables in the preceding sonnet (it’s an unusually fast multi-syllable word). That line, notably, is followed by line 7’s trochee-iamb combination: “THEN should i SPURthough MOUNted ON the WIND.” The sonnet rushes on until, to make its point, the spondee in line 11 emphasizes the dull flesh that will nevertheless not slow it down: “Shall WEIGH no DULL FLESH IN its FIery RACE.”