Sonnet LIX
If there be nothing new, but that which isHath been before, how are our brains beguil’d,Which labouring for invention bear amissThe second burthen of a former child!O! that record could with a backward look,Even of five hundred courses of the sun,Show me your image in some antique book,Since mind at first in character was done!That I might see what the old world could sayTo this composed wonder of your frame;Wh’r we are mended, or wh’r better they,Or whether revolution be the same.O! sure I am the wits of former days,To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
Words in this poem
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- admiring a.
- Expressing admiration; as, an admiring glance.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LIX 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 LIX, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-59.html, id L00077.
Form and metre
Sonnet LIX 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%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% 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 isA · beguil'dB · amissA · childB · lookC · sunD · bookC · doneD · sayE · frameF · theyE · sameF · daysG · praiseG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If there be nothing new, but that which is | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Hath been before, how are our brains beguil’d, | 10 | ······/·˘/ |
| Which labouring for invention bear amiss | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| The second burthen of a former child! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| O! that record could with a backward look, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Even of five hundred courses of the sun, | 10 | /··/˘/˘··· |
| Show me your image in some antique book, | 10 | ···/˘··˘/· |
| Since mind at first in character was done! | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| That I might see what the old world could say | 10 | ·········· |
| To this composed wonder of your frame; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Wh’r we are mended, or wh’r better they, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Or whether revolution be the same. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| O! sure I am the wits of former days, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To subjects worse have given admiring praise. | 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.