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Sonnet LV

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) · 1609

iambic pentameter · English sonnet · 14 lines · from The Sonnets

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Not marble, nor the gilded monumentsOf princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;But you shall shine more bright in these contentsThan unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time.When wasteful war shall statues overturn,And broils root out the work of masonry,Nor Mars his sword, nor war’s quick fire shall burnThe living record of your memory.’Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmityShall you pace forth; your praise shall still find roomEven in the eyes of all posterityThat wear this world out to the ending doom.So, till the judgement that yourself arise,You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.

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,]
outlive v. t.
To live beyond, or longer than; to survive.
dwell v. i.
To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Sonnet LV 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 LV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-55.html, id L00073.

Form and metre

Sonnet LV 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 81%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% 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. 1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG monumentsA · rhymeB · contentsA · timeB · overturnC · masonryD · burnC · memoryD · enmityE · roomF · posterityE · doomF · ariseG · eyesG
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.

LineSyl.Stress
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments10·/˘··/˘/˘˘
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;10·/˘··/·/˘·
But you shall shine more bright in these contents10········/˘
Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time.10·······/˘·
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,10·/˘··/·/˘·
And broils root out the work of masonry,10·······/˘˘
Nor Mars his sword, nor war’s quick fire shall burn10·······/··
The living record of your memory.10·/˘/˘··/˘˘
’Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmity11····˘/˘˘/˘˘
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room10··········
Even in the eyes of all posterity11/˘·····˘/˘˘
That wear this world out to the ending doom.10·······/˘·
So, till the judgement that yourself arise,10···/˘·˘/˘/
You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.10·······/˘·

On this poem

This sonnet, like 54, seems to take up the closing line of the preceding one. Mr. Tyler {Athena:um, Sept. II, 1880) ingeniously argues that the thought and phrasing of lines in this sonnet are derived from a passage in Meres's Palladis Tatnia, 1598, where Shakespeare among others is mentioned with honour : — " As Ovid saith of his worke ; lamque opus excgi, quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignis. Nee potent ferrum , nee edax abolere vetustas ; I8l And as Horace saith of his : Exegi monumentum aerc perennius, Regalique situ pyramidum altius ; Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis Annorum series et fuga temporum : So say I seuerally of Sir Philip Sidneys, Spencers, Daniels, Dray- tons, Shakespeare*, and Warners vvorkes ; Nee Jcrvis ira, imbrcs, Mars, ferrum , fiamma, senectus. Hoc opus unda, lues, turbo, venena ruent. Et quanquam ad pulcherrimum hoc opus euertendum tres ill i Di conspirabunt, Chronus, Vulcanus, et Pater ipse gentis: — Nee tamen annorum series, non fiamma, nee ensis, Aeternum potiut hoe abolere deeus."
Notes from the edition 5

Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan

  1. Line 1 Monuments. The quarto has "monument;" corrected by Malone.
  2. Line 3 These contents. What is contained in these verses of mine.
  3. Line 7 Mars his sword. Cf. T. and C. ii. 1. 58: "Mars his idiot," etc.
  4. Line 9 All-oblivious. Causing to be forgotten. Cf. oblivious in Macb. v. 3. 43 ; the only other instance of the word in S.
  5. Line 13 ! ill the judgment, etc. Till the judgment day shall bid you rise from the dead. Hudson has this strange note: "Arise is here used transitively, and is put in the plural fur the rhyme, though its subject is in the singular: 'Till the judgment day that raises your- self from the dead,' is the meaning." This is the sense, but not the syntax.

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.

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