Sonnet CV
Let not my love be call’d idolatry,Nor my beloved as an idol show,Since all alike my songs and praises beTo one, of one, still such, and ever so.Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,Still constant in a wondrous excellence;Therefore my verse to constancy confin’d,One thing expressing, leaves out difference.‘Fair, kind, and true,’ is all my argument,‘Fair, kind, and true,’ varying to other words;And in this change is my invention spent,Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.Fair, kind, and true, have often liv’d alone,Which three till now, never kept seat in one.
Words in this poem
- idol n.
- An image or representation of anything. [OE. idole, F. idole, L. idolum, fr. Gr. Wit, and cf. Eidolon.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CV 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 CV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-105.html, id L00123.
Form and metre
Sonnet CV 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 84%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 4 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 idolatryA · showB · beA · soB · kindC · excellenceD · confin'dC · differenceD · argumentE · wordsF · spentE · affordsF · aloneG · oneG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Let not my love be call’d idolatry, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Nor my beloved as an idol show, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Since all alike my songs and praises be | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| To one, of one, still such, and ever so. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Still constant in a wondrous excellence; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Therefore my verse to constancy confin’d, | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| One thing expressing, leaves out difference. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| ‘Fair, kind, and true,’ is all my argument, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| ‘Fair, kind, and true,’ varying to other words; | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| And in this change is my invention spent, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Fair, kind, and true, have often liv’d alone, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Which three till now, never kept seat in one. | 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.