Sonnet 137

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Sonnet 137

Sonnet 137 1609.jpg

–William Shakespeare

Sonnet 137 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.

Structure

Sonnet 137 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 5th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

×  /      ×  /    × / ×   /   ×   / 
If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks, (137.5)

/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.

Line 11 begins with the rightward movement of the first ictus (resulting in a four-position figure, × × / /, sometimes referred to as a minor ionic):

×   ×   /     / ×     /    ×    /  ×   / 
Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not, (137.11)

A minor ionic potentially occurs in line 10. Several lines (3, 7, 8, 9, 14) potentially contain either initial or mid-line reversals. The mid-line reversal of line 14 is metrically more complex:

×    /   ×   /      /    ×     ×   /    ×   / 
And to this false plague are they now transferred. (137.14)

The first ictus may fall on any of the first three words, but the complex element is "false plague": Peter Groves calls this a "harsh mapping", and recommends that in performance "the best thing to do is to prolong the subordinated S-syllable [here, "false"] ... the effect of this is to throw a degree of emphasis on it".

The meter demands that line 7's "forgèd" be pronounced as two syllables.

References

First edition and facsimile

Variorum editions

Modern critical editions

• online text

External links

• www.shakespeare-online.com