Sonnet XXXIV
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,And make me travel forth without my cloak,To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way,Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?’Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,For no man well of such a salve can speak,That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:The offender’s sorrow lends but weak reliefTo him that bears the strong offence’s cross.Ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds.
Words in this poem
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
- offence n.
- The act of offending in any sense; esp., a crime or a sin, an affront or an injury. [F., fr. L. offensa. See Offend.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXXIV 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 XXXIV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-34.html, id L00052.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXXIV 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 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 7% 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 dayA · cloakB · wayA · smokeB · breakC · faceD · speakC · disgraceD · griefE · lossF · reliefE · crossF · shedsG · deedsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘˘· |
| And make me travel forth without my cloak, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way, | 10 | ·········· |
| Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke? | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| ’Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For no man well of such a salve can speak, | 10 | ·········· |
| That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss: | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| The offender’s sorrow lends but weak relief | 11 | ·˘/˘/˘···˘/ |
| To him that bears the strong offence’s cross. | 10 | ·········· |
| Ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds, | 10 | ·········· |
| And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds. | 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.