Sonnet XXVI
The world is woven all of dream and errorAnd but one sureness in our truth may lie—That when we hold to aught our thinking’s mirrorWe know it not by knowing it thereby.For but one side of things the mirror knows,And knows it colded from its solidness.A double lie its truth is; what it showsBy true show’s false and nowhere by true place.Thought clouds our life’s day-sense with strangeness, yetNever from strangeness more than that it’s strangeDoth buy our perplexed thinking, for we getBut the words’ sense from words—knowledge, truth, change.We know the world is false, not what is true.Yet we think on, knowing we ne’er shall know.
Words in this poem
- sureness n.
- The state of being sure; certainty.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- solidness n.
- State or quality of being solid; firmness; compactness; solidity, as of material bodies.
- nowhere adv.
- Not anywhere; not in any place or state; as, the book is nowhere to be found. [AS. nahwær. See No, and Where.]
- strangeness n.
- The state or quality of being strange (in any sense of the adjective).
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXVI 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 XXVI, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-xxvi.html, id L23655.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXVI 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 82%).
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 errorA · lieB · mirrorA · therebyB · knowsC · solidnessD · showsC · placeD · yetE · strangeF · getE · changeF · trueG · knowG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The world is woven all of dream and error | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And but one sureness in our truth may lie— | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| That when we hold to aught our thinking’s mirror | 11 | ······//˘/˘ |
| We know it not by knowing it thereby. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| For but one side of things the mirror knows, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And knows it colded from its solidness. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| A double lie its truth is; what it shows | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| By true show’s false and nowhere by true place. | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Thought clouds our life’s day-sense with strangeness, yet | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Never from strangeness more than that it’s strange | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Doth buy our perplexed thinking, for we get | 10 | ··/˘//˘··· |
| But the words’ sense from words—knowledge, truth, change. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| We know the world is false, not what is true. | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet we think on, knowing we ne’er shall know. | 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.