Sonnet XXXVII
As a decrepit father takes delightTo see his active child do deeds of youth,So I, made lame by Fortune’s dearest spite,Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth;For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,Or any of these all, or all, or more,Entitled in thy parts, do crowned sit,I make my love engrafted, to this store:So then I am not lame, poor, nor despis’d,Whilst that this shadow doth such substance giveThat I in thy abundance am suffic’d,And by a part of all thy glory live.Look what is best, that best I wish in thee:This wish I have; then ten times happy me!
Words in this poem
- decrepit a.
- Broken down with age; wasted and enfeebled by the infirmities of old age; feeble; worn out. [L. decrepitus, perhaps orig., noised out, noiseless, applied to old people, who creep about quietly; de- + crepare to make a noise, rattle: cf. F. décrépit. See]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXXVII 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 XXXVII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-37.html, id L00055.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXXVII 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 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 14% 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 delightA · youthB · spiteA · truthB · witC · moreD · sitC · storeD · despis'dE · giveF · suffic'dE · liveF · theeG · meG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As a decrepit father takes delight | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| To see his active child do deeds of youth, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| So I, made lame by Fortune’s dearest spite, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Or any of these all, or all, or more, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Entitled in thy parts, do crowned sit, | 10 | ˘/˘˘······ |
| I make my love engrafted, to this store: | 10 | ·········· |
| So then I am not lame, poor, nor despis’d, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| That I in thy abundance am suffic’d, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| And by a part of all thy glory live. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Look what is best, that best I wish in thee: | 10 | ·········· |
| This wish I have; then ten times happy me! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
Notes from the edition 2
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 3 So I, made lame. Cf. 89. 3 below : " Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt." Capell and others have inferred that S. was literally lame. Malone remarks : "In the 89th Sonnet the poet speaks of his friend's imputing to him a fault of which he was not guilty, and yet, he says, he would acknowledge it : so (he adds) were he to be described as lame, however untruly, yet rather than his friend should appear in the wrong, he would immediately halt. If S. was in truth lame, he had it not in his power to halt occasion- ally for this or any other purpose. The defect must have been fixed and permanent. The context in the verse before us in like manner refutes this notion. If the words are to be understood literally, we must then suppose that our admired poet was also poor and despised, for neither of which suppositions is there the smallest ground." Dowden says : " S. uses to lame in the sense of disable; here the 'worth and truth of his friend are set over against the lameness of S. ; the lameness, then, is metaphorical — a disability to join in the joyous movement of life, as his friend does." Fleay believes that the lameness is " that of Shakespeare's verses." Dearest. Most intense; as often. Cf. Ham. i. 2. 182 : "my dearest foe," etc.
- Line 7 Entitled in thy parts. Finding their title or claim to the throne in thy qualities. Cf. R. of L. 57 : — " But beauty, in that white intituled, From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field ; " Malone explains entitled as " ennobled." The quarto has " thei, parts," which Schmidt would retain, explaining the passage thus : " or more excellencies, having a just claim to the first place as their due." Wyndham reads " Intituled " and retains " their," seeing allusions to heraldry in the passage. IO. Shadow. S. is fond of contrasting shadow and substance. Cf. M. W. ii. 2. 215, M. of V. iii. 2. 128, Rich. II. ii. 2. 14, etc.
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