Sonnet CXII
Your love and pity doth the impression fill,Which vulgar scandal stamp’d upon my brow;For what care I who calls me well or ill,So you o’er-green my bad, my good allow?You are my all-the-world, and I must striveTo know my shames and praises from your tongue;None else to me, nor I to none alive,That my steel’d sense or changes right or wrong.In so profound abysm I throw all careOf others’ voices, that my adder’s senseTo critic and to flatterer stopped are.Mark how with my neglect I do dispense:You are so strongly in my purpose bred,That all the world besides methinks are dead.
Words in this poem
- scandal n.
- Offense caused or experienced; reproach or reprobation called forth by what is regarded as wrong, criminal, heinous, or flagrant: opprobrium or disgrace. [F. scandale, fr. L. scandalum, Gr. scandle, OF. escandle. See Slander.]
- abysm n.
- An abyss; a gulf. [OF. abisme; F. abime, LL. abyssimus, a superl. of L. abyssus; Gr. Abyss.]
- dispense v. i.
- To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXII 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 CXII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-112.html, id L00130.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXII 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 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 21% 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 fillA · browB · illA · allowB · striveC · tongueD · aliveC · wrongD · careE · senseF · areE · dispenseF · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Your love and pity doth the impression fill, | 11 | ···/˘··˘/˘· |
| Which vulgar scandal stamp’d upon my brow; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| For what care I who calls me well or ill, | 10 | ·········· |
| So you o’er-green my bad, my good allow? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| You are my all-the-world, and I must strive | 10 | ·········· |
| To know my shames and praises from your tongue; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| None else to me, nor I to none alive, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That my steel’d sense or changes right or wrong. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In so profound abysm I throw all care | 10 | ··˘/˘/···· |
| Of others’ voices, that my adder’s sense | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| To critic and to flatterer stopped are. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Mark how with my neglect I do dispense: | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| You are so strongly in my purpose bred, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That all the world besides methinks are dead. | 10 | ····˘/˘/·· |
Notes from the edition 7
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 7 None else, etc. " No one living for me except you, nor I alive to any, who can change my feelings fixed as steel either for good or ill — either to pleasure or pain " (Dowden). Malone con- jectures "e'er changes," and Knight "so changes." Dyce prints "sense'," both here and in 10 below. In the latter case it is quite certainly the contracted plural (see on 91. 4 above), and perhaps here also.
- Line 8 Right or wrong. " Either to what is right or to what is wrong" (Steevens).
- Line 9 Abysm. Printed " Abisme" in the quarto. See on 20. 7 above.
- Line 11 Critic. Carper; the only meaning in S. Cf. L. L. L. iii. 1. 178 and T. and C. v. 2. 131 ; the only other instances in his works.
- Line 12 With . . . dispense. Excuse. Cf. C. of E. ii. I. 103, etc.
- Line 13 So strongly, etc. "So kept and harbour'd in my thoughts"' (Schmidt).
- Line 14 Are dead. The quarto has "y'are; " corrected by Malone (1780). Dyce and Dowden read "they're."
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