Sonnet 137 is one of
154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
.
Structure
Sonnet 137 is an English or Shakespearean
sonnet
A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...
. The English sonnet has three
quatrain
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.
Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Greec ...
s, followed by a final rhyming
couplet
A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...
. It follows the typical rhyme scheme of the form ''abab cdcd efef gg'' and is composed in
iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...
, a type of poetic
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...
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
ere, "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.
Notes
References
External links
www.shakespeare-online.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 137
British poems
Sonnets by William Shakespeare