Sonnet CXXVI
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy powerDost hold Time’s fickle glass, his fickle hour;Who hast by waning grown, and therein show’stThy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow’st.If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skillMay time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure!She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure:Her audit (though delayed) answered must be,And her quietus is to render thee.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- waning n.
- The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
- withering a.
- Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.
- wrack n.
- Wreck; ruin; destruction. [OE. wrak wreck. See Wreck.]
- audit n.
- An audience; a hearing. [L. auditus a hearing, fr. audire. See Audible, a.]
- quietus n.
- Final discharge or acquittance, as from debt or obligation; that which silences claims; (Fig.) rest; death. [LL. quietus quit, discharged, L., at rest, quiet, dead. See Quiet, a., and cf. Quit, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXXVI 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 CXXVI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-126.html, id L00144.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXXVI is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 97% 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. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFF powerA · hourA · show'stB · grow'stB · wrackC · backC · skillD · killD · pleasureE · treasureE · beF · theeF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Dost hold Time’s fickle glass, his fickle hour; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Who hast by waning grown, and therein show’st | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow’st. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure! | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure: | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Her audit (though delayed) answered must be, | 10 | ·/˘·˘//˘·· |
| And her quietus is to render thee. | 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.