Sonnet 70 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 ...
. It is a member of the
Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.
Synopsis
The Speaker assures a young man that accusations against him do not actually harm him, because beauty is always a target ("mark") for slander.
In fact, slander only verifies the worth of the good, as it seeks to be attached to the very best, as (the Speaker claims) the young man is.
The young man has made it this far, either avoiding or triumphing over vice, yet this praise is insufficient to "tie up envy", which always increases.
"
a hint or suspicion of badness did not disguise your true appearance, entire nations would be in thrall to you."
Structure
Sonnet 70 is an English or Shakespearean
sonnet. The English sonnet has three
quatrains, followed by a final rhyming
couplet. It follows the typical
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 r ...
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". "Iam ...
, 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 prefi ...
based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The fourth line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × /
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air. (70.4)
:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''.
The meter demands a few variant pronunciations: The first and third lines' rhyming words, "defect" and "suspect" are both stressed on the second syllable. Though it is uncertain ''how'' contracted words like this might have been in Elizabethan pronunciation, line ten's "either" ''functions'' as one syllable, and might have been pronounced as one.
Notes
Further reading
External links
Explanation and analysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 070
British poems
Sonnets by William Shakespeare