Sonnet 81 is one of 154

sonnets 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, ...

written by

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 ...

, and published in a

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

titled ''Shakespeare's Sonnets'' in 1609. It is a part of the Fair Youth series of sonnets, and the fourth sonnet of the

Rival Poet The Rival Poet is one of several characters, either fictional or real persons, featured in William Shakespeare's sonnets. The sonnets most commonly identified as the Rival Poet group exist within the Fair Youth group in sonnets 78– 86. Several ...

series.

Exegesis

The poet anticipates his own death, and includes the chance that the young man might die first. When the poet dies he will be soon forgotten, but when the young man dies he will live on as the subject of the poet's verse. This sonnet is distinct for its plain-spoken, simple collection of thoughtful statements. Most of the lines could be plucked out and joined at random to most other lines, and they would form complete and reasonable sentences. It is also distinct for its scarcity of metaphor. The poem, beginning with the first two lines, rocks back and forth between thesis and antithesis: "I shall live, you shall die, you shall live, I shall die …" The poem is a reconsideration of the idea that poetry can immortalize the young man. The previous sonnets in the Rival Poet group have hinted at retaliation for the young man's disloyal preference for another poet, and in this poem retaliation becomes activated as the sonnet considers how the poet will write his friend's epitaph. The poet will have a common grave, but the young man is provided with a tomb in the eyes of men (line 8). The tomb's monument is the sonnet itself, which, in the way of tombstones, will be read by generations in the future. Line 11 ("And tongues to be your being shall rehearse”) contains a morbid pun as it envisions the re-reading of an epitaph to be like a re-burial (“re-hearse"). The couplet has the young man being finally entombed in men's mouths "where breath most breathes”. That could be either an important final resting place, as words are breath, and life is breath. Or it could be insignificant as a breath will vanish quickly. That difference is going to be significant in the rest of the Rival Poet group.Hammond, Gerald. ''The Reader and the Young Man Sonnets''. Barnes & Noble. 1981. p. 99-100.

Structure

Sonnet 81 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, ...

, which 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

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

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

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 ...

of five feet per line, with two syllables in each foot accented weak/strong. Most of the lines are examples of regular iambic pentameter, including the 5th line:

  ×    /    ×    /    ×  /  ×   /     ×    / 
Your name from hence immortal life shall have, (81.5)

The 2nd and 4th lines feature a final extrametrical syllable or ''feminine ending'':

×   /   ×   /    ×  /  ×   /    ×   / (×) 
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten; (81.2)

:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''. (×) = extrametrical syllable. The meter calls for line 8's "entombèd" to be pronounced as 3 syllables, and line 14's "even" as 1.

Exegesis

Structure

References

Further reading