Sonnet XLV
The other two, slight air, and purging fireAre both with thee, wherever I abide;The first my thought, the other my desire,These present-absent with swift motion slide.For when these quicker elements are goneIn tender embassy of love to thee,My life, being made of four, with two aloneSinks down to death, oppress’d with melancholy;Until life’s composition be recur’dBy those swift messengers return’d from thee,Who even but now come back again, assur’d,Of thy fair health, recounting it to me:This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,I send them back again, and straight grow sad.
Words in this poem
- wherever adv.
- At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XLV 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 XLV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-45.html, id L00063.
Form and metre
Sonnet XLV 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 89%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 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 fireA · abideB · desireA · slideB · goneC · theeD · aloneC · melancholyD · recur'dE · theeF · assur'dE · meF · gladG · sadG
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 other two, slight air, and purging fire | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Are both with thee, wherever I abide; | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| The first my thought, the other my desire, | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| These present-absent with swift motion slide. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| For when these quicker elements are gone | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| In tender embassy of love to thee, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| My life, being made of four, with two alone | 10 | ··/·····˘/ |
| Sinks down to death, oppress’d with melancholy; | 11 | ····˘/·/˘·˘ |
| Until life’s composition be recur’d | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| By those swift messengers return’d from thee, | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/·· |
| Who even but now come back again, assur’d, | 10 | ·/····˘/˘/ |
| Of thy fair health, recounting it to me: | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| This told, I joy; but then no longer glad, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I send them back again, and straight grow sad. | 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.