Sonnet XVI
We never joy enjoy to that full pointRegret doth wish joy had enjoyèd been,Nor have the strength regret to disappointRecalling not past joy’s thought, but its mien.Yet joy was joy when it enjoyèd wasAnd after-enjoyed when as joy recalled,It must have been joy ere its joy did passAnd, recalled, joy still, since its being-past galled.Alas! All this is useless, for joy’s inEnjoying, not in thinking of enjoying.Its mere thought-mirroring gainst itself doth sin,By mere reflecting solid life destroying,Yet the more thought we take to thought to proveIt must not think, doth further from joy move.
About this text
Sonnet XVI is in the public domain. This text is taken from 35 Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #19978; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Fernando Pessoa, Sonnet XVI, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-xvi.html, id L23645.
Form and metre
Sonnet XVI is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG pointA · beenB · disappointA · mienB · wasC · recalledD · passC · galledD · inE · enjoyingF · sinE · destroyingF · proveG · moveG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We never joy enjoy to that full point | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Regret doth wish joy had enjoyèd been, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Nor have the strength regret to disappoint | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Recalling not past joy’s thought, but its mien. | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Yet joy was joy when it enjoyèd was | 8 | ········ |
| And after-enjoyed when as joy recalled, | 10 | ···˘/···˘/ |
| It must have been joy ere its joy did pass | 10 | ·········· |
| And, recalled, joy still, since its being-past galled. | 10 | ·˘/····/·· |
| Alas! All this is useless, for joy’s in | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Enjoying, not in thinking of enjoying. | 11 | ˘/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Its mere thought-mirroring gainst itself doth sin, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| By mere reflecting solid life destroying, | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Yet the more thought we take to thought to prove | 10 | ·········· |
| It must not think, doth further from joy move. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.