Sonnet CVIII
What’s in the brain, that ink may character,Which hath not figur’d to thee my true spirit?What’s new to speak, what now to register,That may express my love, or thy dear merit?Nothing, sweet boy; but yet, like prayers divine,I must each day say o’er the very same;Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine,Even as when first I hallow’d thy fair name.So that eternal love in love’s fresh case,Weighs not the dust and injury of age,Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place,But makes antiquity for aye his page;Finding the first conceit of love there bred,Where time and outward form would show it dead.
About this text
Sonnet CVIII 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 CVIII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-108.html, id L00126.
Form and metre
Sonnet CVIII 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%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 characterA · spiritB · registerA · meritB · divineC · sameD · thineC · nameD · caseE · ageF · placeE · pageF · bredG · deadG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What’s in the brain, that ink may character, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Which hath not figur’d to thee my true spirit? | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| What’s new to speak, what now to register, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| That may express my love, or thy dear merit? | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Nothing, sweet boy; but yet, like prayers divine, | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| I must each day say o’er the very same; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Even as when first I hallow’d thy fair name. | 10 | /····/˘··· |
| So that eternal love in love’s fresh case, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Weighs not the dust and injury of age, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| But makes antiquity for aye his page; | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Finding the first conceit of love there bred, | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| Where time and outward form would show it dead. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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