Sonnet CXXII
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brainFull character’d with lasting memory,Which shall above that idle rank remain,Beyond all date; even to eternity:Or, at the least, so long as brain and heartHave faculty by nature to subsist;Till each to raz’d oblivion yield his partOf thee, thy record never can be miss’d.That poor retention could not so much hold,Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score;Therefore to give them from me was I bold,To trust those tables that receive thee more:To keep an adjunct to remember theeWere to import forgetfulness in me.
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,]
- subsist v. i.
- To be; to have existence; to inhere. [L. subsistere to stand still, stay, remain alive; sub under + sistere to stand, to cause to stand, from stare to stand: cf. F. subsister. See Stand.]
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXXII 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 CXXII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-122.html, id L00140.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXXII 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 82%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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 brainA · memoryB · remainA · eternityB · heartC · subsistD · partC · miss'dD · holdE · scoreF · boldE · moreF · theeG · meG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Full character’d with lasting memory, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Which shall above that idle rank remain, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Beyond all date; even to eternity: | 11 | ····/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Or, at the least, so long as brain and heart | 10 | ·········· |
| Have faculty by nature to subsist; | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Till each to raz’d oblivion yield his part | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Of thee, thy record never can be miss’d. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| That poor retention could not so much hold, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Therefore to give them from me was I bold, | 10 | ·········· |
| To trust those tables that receive thee more: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| To keep an adjunct to remember thee | 10 | ···/··˘/˘· |
| Were to import forgetfulness in me. | 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.