Sonnet CLII
In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn,But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing;In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn,In vowing new hate after new love bearing:But why of two oaths’ breach do I accuse thee,When I break twenty? I am perjur’d most;For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,And all my honest faith in thee is lost:For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy;And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,Or made them swear against the thing they see;For I have sworn thee fair; more perjured I,To swear against the truth so foul a lie.
Words in this poem
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- perjured a.
- Guilty of perjury; having sworn falsely; forsworn.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CLII 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 CLII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-152.html, id L00170.
Form and metre
Sonnet CLII 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%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 5 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 forswornA · swearingB · tornA · bearingB · theeC · mostD · theeC · lostD · kindnessE · constancyF · blindnessE · seeF · iG · lieG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn, | 10 | ·/˘······/ |
| But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing; | 11 | ·····/···/˘ |
| In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn, | 10 | ·········· |
| In vowing new hate after new love bearing: | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| But why of two oaths’ breach do I accuse thee, | 11 | ········˘/· |
| When I break twenty? I am perjur’d most; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee, | 11 | ········˘/· |
| And all my honest faith in thee is lost: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness, | 11 | ··˘/˘····/˘ |
| Or made them swear against the thing they see; | 10 | ·········· |
| For I have sworn thee fair; more perjured I, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To swear against the truth so foul a lie. | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 3
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 3 In act thy bed-vow broke. This seems to imply that the lady was married, but bed-vow may possibly refer to her illicit re- lations with the poet, to whom she had pledged a " faith unfaith- ful, falsely true," as Tennyson expresses it. But since we cannot identify her, the simpler interpretation may be correct, though it is singular that elsewhere in the Sonnets we should find no reference to a husband if sha had one.
- Line 9 Kindness. Affection, tenderness; as in Much Ado, iii. I. 113 : " If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee To bind our loves up in a holy band."
- Line 11 To enlighten thee, etc. "To see thee in the brightness of imagination I gave away my eyes to blindness, made myself blind " (Dowden).
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