Sonnet CXLIV
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,Which like two spirits do suggest me still:The better angel is a man right fair,The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill.To win me soon to hell, my female evil,Tempteth my better angel from my side,And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,Wooing his purity with her foul pride.And whether that my angel be turn’d fiend,Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;But being both from me, both to each friend,I guess one angel in another’s hell:Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXLIV 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 CXLIV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-144.html, id L00162.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXLIV 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 89%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 despairA · stillB · fairA · illB · evilC · sideD · devilC · prideD · fiendE · tellF · friendE · hellF · doubtG · outG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two loves I have of comfort and despair, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Which like two spirits do suggest me still: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| The better angel is a man right fair, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill. | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘/˘· |
| To win me soon to hell, my female evil, | 11 | ·······/·/˘ |
| Tempteth my better angel from my side, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Wooing his purity with her foul pride. | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| And whether that my angel be turn’d fiend, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Suspect I may, yet not directly tell; | 10 | ˘/····˘/˘· |
| But being both from me, both to each friend, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I guess one angel in another’s hell: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt, | 10 | ·········· |
| Till my bad angel fire my good one out. | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 4
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 2 Suggest. Tempt. Cf. Oth. ii. 3. 358 : — " When devils will the blackest sins put on, They do suggest at first with heavenly shows," etc.
- Line 6 From my side. The quarto has " sight ; " corrected from the P. P. version.
- Line 11 From me. Away from me ; a common meaning of from.
- Line 14 Till my bad angel, etc. Dowden compares 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 365: — " Prince Henry. For the women ? Falstaff. For one of them, she is in hell already, and burns poor souls." I prefer Hanmer's reading " burns, poor soul," but the allusion in burns is the same in either case.
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