Sonnet CXL
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not pressMy tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;Lest sorrow lend me words, and words expressThe manner of my pity-wanting pain.If I might teach thee wit, better it were,Though not to love, yet love to tell me so,As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,No news but health from their physicians know.For, if I should despair, I should grow mad,And in my madness might speak ill of thee;Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.That I may not be so, nor thou belied,Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.
About this text
Sonnet CXL 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 CXL, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-140.html, id L00158.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXL 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 10.0 syllables. 14% 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 pressA · disdainB · expressA · painB · wereC · soD · nearC · knowD · madE · theeF · badE · beF · beliedG · wideG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| The manner of my pity-wanting pain. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| If I might teach thee wit, better it were, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Though not to love, yet love to tell me so, | 10 | ·········· |
| As testy sick men, when their deaths be near, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| No news but health from their physicians know. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| For, if I should despair, I should grow mad, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And in my madness might speak ill of thee; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be. | 10 | ·/˘˘···˘/· |
| That I may not be so, nor thou belied, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide. | 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.