Sonnet CXLV
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make,Breathed forth the sound that said ‘I hate’,To me that languish’d for her sake:But when she saw my woeful state,Straight in her heart did mercy come,Chiding that tongue that ever sweetWas us’d in giving gentle doom;And taught it thus anew to greet;‘I hate’ she alter’d with an end,That followed it as gentle day,Doth follow night, who like a fiendFrom heaven to hell is flown away.‘I hate’, from hate away she threw,And sav’d my life, saying ‘not you’.
Words in this poem
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXLV 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 CXLV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-145.html, id L00163.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXLV is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 makeA · hateB · sakeA · stateB · comeC · sweetD · doomC · greetD · endE · dayF · fiendE · awayF · threwG · youG
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Those lips that Love’s own hand did make, | 8 | ········ |
| Breathed forth the sound that said ‘I hate’, | 9 | ·˘······· |
| To me that languish’d for her sake: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But when she saw my woeful state, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Straight in her heart did mercy come, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Chiding that tongue that ever sweet | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Was us’d in giving gentle doom; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And taught it thus anew to greet; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| ‘I hate’ she alter’d with an end, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That followed it as gentle day, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| Doth follow night, who like a fiend | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| From heaven to hell is flown away. | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| ‘I hate’, from hate away she threw, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And sav’d my life, saying ‘not you’. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
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.