Sonnet CXIV
Or whether doth my mind, being crown’d with you,Drink up the monarch’s plague, this flattery?Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith true,And that your love taught it this alchemy,To make of monsters and things indigestSuch cherubins as your sweet self resemble,Creating every bad a perfect best,As fast as objects to his beams assemble?O! ’tis the first, ’tis flattery in my seeing,And my great mind most kingly drinks it up:Mine eye well knows what with his gust is ’greeing,And to his palate doth prepare the cup:If it be poison’d, ’tis the lesser sinThat mine eye loves it and doth first begin.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- indigest a.
- Crude; unformed; unorganized; undigested. [L. indigestus unarranged. See Indigested.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXIV 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 CXIV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-114.html, id L00132.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXIV 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 81%). 94% 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. 14% 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 youA · flatteryB · trueA · alchemyB · indigestC · resembleD · bestC · assembleD · seeingE · upF · greeingE · cupF · sinG · beginG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Or whether doth my mind, being crown’d with you, | 10 | ······/··· |
| Drink up the monarch’s plague, this flattery? | 10 | ···/···/˘˘ |
| Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith true, | 10 | ·········· |
| And that your love taught it this alchemy, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| To make of monsters and things indigest | 10 | ···/˘··˘˘/ |
| Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Creating every bad a perfect best, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/·· |
| As fast as objects to his beams assemble? | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| O! ’tis the first, ’tis flattery in my seeing, | 10 | ·····/˘··/ |
| And my great mind most kingly drinks it up: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Mine eye well knows what with his gust is ’greeing, | 10 | ·········· |
| And to his palate doth prepare the cup: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| If it be poison’d, ’tis the lesser sin | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That mine eye loves it and doth first begin. | 10 | ········˘/ |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 4
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 4 Alchemy. Printed " Alcumie" in the quarto. See on 20. 7 above. For the allusion to alchemy, cf. ^2- 4- S. uses the word only in these passages and in J. C. i. 3. 159. Alchemist occurs in K.John, iii. 1. 78 and T. of A. v. 1. 117.
- Line 5 Indigest. Chaotic, formless. Cf. 2 Hen. VI. v. I. 157: "foul indigested lump;" and 3 Hen. VI. v. 6. 51: "an indigested and deformed lump." These are the only instances of the words in S.
- Line 6 Cherubins. The only form of the plural in S., as cherubin is the only singular, except in Ham. iv. 3. 50, where cherub occurs.
- Line 11 What with his gust is greeing. What suits its (the eye's) taste. The quarto has greeing, not " 'greeing," as commonly printed. Gree is found in prose ; as in M. of V. ii. 2. 108, etc. For gust, cf. T. X. i. 3. 33 : " the gust he hath in quarrelling," etc.
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