Sonnet CI
O truant Muse what shall be thy amendsFor thy neglect of truth in beauty dy’d?Both truth and beauty on my love depends;So dost thou too, and therein dignified.Make answer Muse: wilt thou not haply say,‘Truth needs no colour, with his colour fix’d;Beauty no pencil, beauty’s truth to lay;But best is best, if never intermix’d?Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?Excuse not silence so, for’t lies in theeTo make him much outlive a gilded tombAnd to be prais’d of ages yet to be.Then do thy office, Muse; I teach thee howTo make him seem long hence as he shows now.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- outlive v. t.
- To live beyond, or longer than; to survive.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CI is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #1041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Shakespeare, Sonnet CI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-101.html, id L00119.
Form and metre
Sonnet CI 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 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 amendsA · dy'dB · dependsA · dignifiedB · sayC · fix'dD · layC · intermix'dD · dumbE · theeF · tombE · beF · howG · nowG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O truant Muse what shall be thy amends | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| For thy neglect of truth in beauty dy’d? | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Both truth and beauty on my love depends; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| So dost thou too, and therein dignified. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Make answer Muse: wilt thou not haply say, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| ‘Truth needs no colour, with his colour fix’d; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Beauty no pencil, beauty’s truth to lay; | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| But best is best, if never intermix’d? | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb? | 10 | ·········· |
| Excuse not silence so, for’t lies in thee | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| To make him much outlive a gilded tomb | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| And to be prais’d of ages yet to be. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Then do thy office, Muse; I teach thee how | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To make him seem long hence as he shows now. | 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.