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 | ···/˘····· |
Notes from the edition 8
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 1 State. Rank, power.
- Line 3 As subject to Time's love, etc. That fa, as being "Time's fool" (116. 9).
- Line 4 Weeds, etc. Regarded as weeds or flowers, according to Time's caprice.
- Line 5 Builded. The participle is oftener built; as in 1 19. 11 and I2j. 2 above.
- Line 9 Policy, that heretic. Seeking its own interest, and false to love, which is unselfish. Dowden compares R. and J. i. 2. 95 (Romeo speaking of eyes unfaithful to the beloved) : "Transpar- ent heretics, be burnt for liars."
- Line 11 Hugely politic. "Love itself is infinitely prudent, prudent for eternity" (Dowden). Hudson takes the phrase to be = "or- ganized or knit together in a huge polity or State ; " to which I can only add his own comment : " Rather an odd use of politic, to us."
- Line 12 That. So that ; as in 76. 7 and 98. 4 above. Steevens con- jectures "glows" for grows, and Capell "dries."
- Line 13 14. To this I witness, etc. Dowden asks : "Does this mean, ;I call to witness the transitory unworthy loves {fools of time = sports of time — cf. 1 16. 9), whose death was a virtue since their life was a crime ?' " Steevens thinks that fools of time, etc., may be " a stroke at some of Fox's Martyrs ; " and Palgrave says : "appar- ently, the plotters and political martyrs of the time." Hudson sug- gests that it may mean, " those fools who make as if they would die for virtue after having devoted their lives to vice." Tyler sees an allusion to " the popular repute of Essex as the ' good Earl,' not- withstanding the ' crimes ' for which he and certain of his compan- ions were executed." The reference is hopelessly obscure, and I shall add no attempt to explain it.
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