Sonnet CVII
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soulOf the wide world dreaming on things to come,Can yet the lease of my true love control,Supposed as forfeit to a confin’d doom.The mortal moon hath her eclipse endur’d,And the sad augurs mock their own presage;Incertainties now crown themselves assur’d,And peace proclaims olives of endless age.Now with the drops of this most balmy time,My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,Since, spite of him, I’ll live in this poor rime,While he insults o’er dull and speechless tribes:And thou in this shalt find thy monument,When tyrants’ crests and tombs of brass are spent.
Words in this poem
- balmy a.
- Having the qualities of balm; odoriferous; aromatic; assuaging; soothing; refreshing; mild.
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
- speechless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CVII 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 CVII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-107.html, id L00125.
Form and metre
Sonnet CVII 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%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 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 soulA · comeB · controlA · doomB · endur'dC · presageD · assur'dC · ageD · timeE · subscribesF · rimeE · tribesF · monumentG · spentG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Can yet the lease of my true love control, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Supposed as forfeit to a confin’d doom. | 10 | ˘/·/˘··˘/· |
| The mortal moon hath her eclipse endur’d, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| And the sad augurs mock their own presage; | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Incertainties now crown themselves assur’d, | 9 | ·····˘/˘/ |
| And peace proclaims olives of endless age. | 10 | ··˘//˘·/˘· |
| Now with the drops of this most balmy time, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Since, spite of him, I’ll live in this poor rime, | 10 | ·········· |
| While he insults o’er dull and speechless tribes: | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And thou in this shalt find thy monument, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| When tyrants’ crests and tombs of brass are spent. | 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.