Sonnet XLIX
Against that time, if ever that time come,When I shall see thee frown on my defects,When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,Call’d to that audit by advis’d respects;Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,When love, converted from the thing it was,Shall reasons find of settled gravity;Against that time do I ensconce me here,Within the knowledge of mine own desert,And this my hand, against my self uprear,To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,Since why to love I can allege no cause.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- audit n.
- An audience; a hearing. [L. auditus a hearing, fr. audire. See Audible, a.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- ensconce v. t.
- To cover or shelter, as with a sconce or fort; to place or hide securely; to conceal.
- uprear v. t.
- To raise; to erect.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XLIX 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 XLIX, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-49.html, id L00067.
Form and metre
Sonnet XLIX 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%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 comeA · defectsB · sumA · respectsB · passC · eyeD · wasC · gravityD · hereE · desertF · uprearE · partF · lawsG · causeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Against that time, if ever that time come, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When I shall see thee frown on my defects, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Call’d to that audit by advis’d respects; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| When love, converted from the thing it was, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Shall reasons find of settled gravity; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Against that time do I ensconce me here, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Within the knowledge of mine own desert, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And this my hand, against my self uprear, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| To guard the lawful reasons on thy part: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws, | 10 | ·········· |
| Since why to love I can allege no cause. | 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.