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 | ·······/˘· |
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.