Sonnet 119

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Sonnet 119

Sonnet 119 1609.jpg

–William Shakespeare

Sonnet 119 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.

Structure

Sonnet 119 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical rhyme scheme of the form abab cdcd efef gg and is composed in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The 3rd line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

×   /×    /     ×  /    ×    /     ×  / 
Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, (119.3)

An unusual number of lines (5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12) feature a final extrametrical syllable or feminine ending, as for example:

 /   ×    ×   /    /   ×    ×      /     ×    / (×) 
How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted, (119.7)

/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus. (×) = extrametrical syllable.

Line 7 (above) also features an initial reversal, and potentially a mid-line reversal. Other potential initial reversals occur in lines 6, 8, and 13, while potential mid-line reversals occur in lines 9 and 11.

The meter demands that line 6's "blessèd" is pronounced as two syllables.

Interpretations

• Richard Hammond, for the 2002 compilation album, When Love Speaks (EMI)

References

First edition and facsimile

Variorum editions

Modern critical editions

• online text

External links

• Analysis of the sonnet