Sonnet CXXIV
If my dear love were but the child of state,It might for Fortune’s bastard be unfather’d,As subject to Time’s love or to Time’s hate,Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather’d.No, it was builded far from accident;It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor fallsUnder the blow of thralled discontent,Whereto th’ inviting time our fashion calls:It fears not policy, that heretic,Which works on leases of short-number’d hours,But all alone stands hugely politic,That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers.To this I witness call the fools of time,Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.
Words in this poem
- whereto adv.
- To which; -- used relatively.
- inviting a.
- Alluring; tempting; as, an inviting amusement or prospect.
- heretic n.
- One who holds to a heresy; one who believes some doctrine contrary to the established faith or prevailing religion. [L. haereticus, Gr. hérétique. See Heresy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXXIV 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 CXXIV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-124.html, id L00142.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXXIV 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%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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 stateA · unfather'dB · hateA · gather'dB · accidentC · fallsD · discontentC · callsD · hereticE · hoursF · politicE · showersF · timeG · crimeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If my dear love were but the child of state, | 10 | ·········· |
| It might for Fortune’s bastard be unfather’d, | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| As subject to Time’s love or to Time’s hate, | 10 | ·˘/······· |
| Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather’d. | 11 | ·····/·/˘/˘ |
| No, it was builded far from accident; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Under the blow of thralled discontent, | 10 | ······˘˘˘/ |
| Whereto th’ inviting time our fashion calls: | 10 | ˘/˘/˘·//˘· |
| It fears not policy, that heretic, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Which works on leases of short-number’d hours, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| But all alone stands hugely politic, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| To this I witness call the fools of time, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime. | 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.