Sonnet CLIV
The little Love-god lying once asleep,Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,Whilst many nymphs that vow’d chaste life to keepCame tripping by; but in her maiden handThe fairest votary took up that fireWhich many legions of true hearts had warm’d;And so the general of hot desireWas, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarm’d.This brand she quenched in a cool well by,Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual,Growing a bath and healthful remedy,For men diseased; but I, my mistress’ thrall,Came there for cure and this by that I prove,Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.
About this text
Sonnet CLIV 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 CLIV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-154.html, id L00172.
Form and metre
Sonnet CLIV 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 88%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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 asleepA · brandB · keepA · handB · fireC · warm'dD · desireC · disarm'dD · byE · perpetualF · remedyE · thrallF · proveG · loveG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The little Love-god lying once asleep, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Whilst many nymphs that vow’d chaste life to keep | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The fairest votary took up that fire | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘···/˘ |
| Which many legions of true hearts had warm’d; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And so the general of hot desire | 11 | ···/˘˘··˘/˘ |
| Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarm’d. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| This brand she quenched in a cool well by, | 10 | ····˘····· |
| Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual, | 11 | ···/˘··˘/˘˘ |
| Growing a bath and healthful remedy, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| For men diseased; but I, my mistress’ thrall, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Came there for cure and this by that I prove, | 10 | ·········· |
| Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love. | 10 | ·/·/˘/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 3
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 7 The general of hot desire. In L. L. L. iii. 1. 187 he is called " great general Of trotting paritors." Cf. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. I. 163 : "our general of ebbs and flows" (Diana, or Luna).
- Line 12 Thrall. Bondman. Cf. Macb. iii. 6. 13 : "the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep," etc.
- Line 13 This by that, etc. That is, the statement in the next line.
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