Sonnet 89

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Sonnet 89

Sonnet 89 1609.jpg

–William Shakespeare

Sonnet 89 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.

Synopsis

The poet tells a youth that he can say he abandoned the poet for some fault and he will admit it. The poet will deliberately absent himself and stop discussing the youth, since he cannot even like himself if the youth no longer cares for him.

Structure

Sonnet 89 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 4th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

× /       ×  /  ×    / ×    /  × / 
Against thy reasons making no defence. (89.4)

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

The 1st line exhibits a common metrical variation, the initial reversal:

 /    ×    ×   /     ×  /    ×  /   ×    / 
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, (89.1)

This variation is repeated in the 3rd line, and occurs again as a mid-line reversal ("knowing") in line 7.

References

First edition and facsimile

Variorum editions

Modern critical editions

• online text