Sonnet XLI
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits,When I am sometime absent from thy heart,Thy beauty, and thy years full well befits,For still temptation follows where thou art.Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won,Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assail’d;And when a woman woos, what woman’s sonWill sourly leave her till he have prevail’d?Ay me! but yet thou mightst my seat forbear,And chide thy beauty and thy straying youth,Who lead thee in their riot even thereWhere thou art forced to break a twofold truth:Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,Thine by thy beauty being false to me.
Words in this poem
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- sourly adv.
- In a sour manner; with sourness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XLI 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 XLI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-41.html, id L00059.
Form and metre
Sonnet XLI 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%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 commitsA · heartB · befitsA · artB · wonC · assail'dD · sonC · prevail'dD · forbearE · youthF · thereE · truthF · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| When I am sometime absent from thy heart, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Thy beauty, and thy years full well befits, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| For still temptation follows where thou art. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assail’d; | 11 | /˘˘······˘/ |
| And when a woman woos, what woman’s son | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Will sourly leave her till he have prevail’d? | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Ay me! but yet thou mightst my seat forbear, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And chide thy beauty and thy straying youth, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Who lead thee in their riot even there | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Where thou art forced to break a twofold truth: | 10 | ·······//· |
| Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Thine by thy beauty being false to 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.