Sonnet CXVIII
Like as, to make our appetite more keen,With eager compounds we our palate urge;As, to prevent our maladies unseen,We sicken to shun sickness when we purge;Even so, being full of your ne’er-cloying sweetness,To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding;And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetnessTo be diseas’d, ere that there was true needing.Thus policy in love, to anticipateThe ills that were not, grew to faults assur’d,And brought to medicine a healthful stateWhich, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur’d;But thence I learn and find the lesson true,Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.
Words in this poem
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- sicken v. t.
- To make sick; to disease.
- meetness n.
- Fitness; suitableness; propriety.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXVIII 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 CXVIII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-118.html, id L00136.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXVIII 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 86%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 keenA · urgeB · unseenA · purgeB · sweetnessC · feedingD · meetnessC · needingD · anticipateE · assur'dF · stateE · cur'dF · trueG · youG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Like as, to make our appetite more keen, | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| With eager compounds we our palate urge; | 10 | ·/˘/˘·//˘· |
| As, to prevent our maladies unseen, | 10 | ··˘///˘˘˘/ |
| We sicken to shun sickness when we purge; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Even so, being full of your ne’er-cloying sweetness, | 11 | /·/····/˘/˘ |
| To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding; | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness | 11 | ···/·····/˘ |
| To be diseas’d, ere that there was true needing. | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Thus policy in love, to anticipate | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| The ills that were not, grew to faults assur’d, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And brought to medicine a healthful state | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur’d; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But thence I learn and find the lesson true, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you. | 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.