Sonnet L
How heavy do I journey on the way,When what I seek, my weary travel’s end,Doth teach that ease and that repose to say,‘Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!’The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,As if by some instinct the wretch did knowHis rider lov’d not speed, being made from thee:The bloody spur cannot provoke him on,That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide,Which heavily he answers with a groan,More sharp to me than spurring to his side;For that same groan doth put this in my mind,My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.
Words in this poem
- dully adv.
- In a dull manner; stupidly; slowly; sluggishly; without life or spirit.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet L 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 L, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-50.html, id L00068.
Form and metre
Sonnet L 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 86%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% 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 wayA · endB · sayA · friendB · woeC · meD · knowC · theeD · onE · hideF · groanE · sideF · mindG · behindG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How heavy do I journey on the way, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| When what I seek, my weary travel’s end, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Doth teach that ease and that repose to say, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| ‘Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!’ | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The beast that bears me, tired with my woe, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| As if by some instinct the wretch did know | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| His rider lov’d not speed, being made from thee: | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| The bloody spur cannot provoke him on, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/·· |
| That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide, | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| Which heavily he answers with a groan, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| More sharp to me than spurring to his side; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| For that same groan doth put this in my mind, | 10 | ·········· |
| My grief lies onward, and my joy behind. | 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.