Sonnet CII
My love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming;I love not less, though less the show appear;That love is merchandiz’d, whose rich esteeming,The owner’s tongue doth publish every where.Our love was new, and then but in the spring,When I was wont to greet it with my lays;As Philomel in summer’s front doth sing,And stops her pipe in growth of riper days:Not that the summer is less pleasant nowThan when her mournful hymns did hush the night,But that wild music burthens every bough,And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.Therefore like her, I sometime hold my tongue:Because I would not dull you with my song.
Words in this poem
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CII 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 CII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-102.html, id L00120.
Form and metre
Sonnet CII 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 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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 seemingA · appearB · esteemingA · whereB · springC · laysD · singC · daysD · nowE · nightF · boughE · delightF · tongueG · songG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming; | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| I love not less, though less the show appear; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That love is merchandiz’d, whose rich esteeming, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| The owner’s tongue doth publish every where. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Our love was new, and then but in the spring, | 10 | /········· |
| When I was wont to greet it with my lays; | 10 | ·········· |
| As Philomel in summer’s front doth sing, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| And stops her pipe in growth of riper days: | 10 | ·········· |
| Not that the summer is less pleasant now | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But that wild music burthens every bough, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And sweets grown common lose their dear delight. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Therefore like her, I sometime hold my tongue: | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Because I would not dull you with my song. | 10 | ·········· |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 3
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 3 That love is merchandized, etc. That is, it is degraded by being treated as a "thing of sale." See on 21. 14 above; and cf. L. L. L. ii. 1. 13: — "my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues."
- Line 9 Not that the summer, etc. Capell quotes M. of V. v. I. 104 : — "The nightingale, if she should sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician then the wren."
- Line 12 Sweets grown common, etc. Cf. 52. 3, 4. See also T. N. i. I. 8: ** 'T is not so sweet now as it was before."
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