Sonnet CXXXV
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy ‘Will,’And ‘Will’ to boot, and ‘Will’ in over-plus;More than enough am I that vex’d thee still,To thy sweet will making addition thus.Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?Shall will in others seem right gracious,And in my will no fair acceptance shine?The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,And in abundance addeth to his store;So thou, being rich in ‘Will,’ add to thy ‘Will’One will of mine, to make thy large will more.Let no unkind ‘No’ fair beseechers kill;Think all but one, and me in that one ‘Will.’
Words in this poem
- whoever pron.
- Whatever person; any person who; be or she who; any one who; as, he shall be punished, whoever he may be.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- vouchsafe v. t.
- To condescend to grant; to concede; to bestow. [Vouch + safe, that is, to vouch or answer for safety.]
- 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,]
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXXXV 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 CXXXV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-135.html, id L00153.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXXXV 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 87%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 willA · plusB · stillA · thusB · spaciousC · thineD · graciousC · shineD · stillE · storeF · willE · moreF · killG · willG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy ‘Will,’ | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| And ‘Will’ to boot, and ‘Will’ in over-plus; | 10 | ·········· |
| More than enough am I that vex’d thee still, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| To thy sweet will making addition thus. | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘· |
| Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine? | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Shall will in others seem right gracious, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And in my will no fair acceptance shine? | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The sea, all water, yet receives rain still, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| And in abundance addeth to his store; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| So thou, being rich in ‘Will,’ add to thy ‘Will’ | 10 | ··/······· |
| One will of mine, to make thy large will more. | 10 | ·········· |
| Let no unkind ‘No’ fair beseechers kill; | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Think all but one, and me in that one ‘Will.’ | 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.