Sonnet LXI
Is it thy will, thy image should keep openMy heavy eyelids to the weary night?Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?Is it thy spirit that thou send’st from theeSo far from home into my deeds to pry,To find out shames and idle hours in me,The scope and tenure of thy jealousy?O, no! thy love, though much, is not so great:It is my love that keeps mine eye awake:Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,To play the watchman ever for thy sake:For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,From me far off, with others all too near.
Words in this poem
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- watchman n.
- One set to watch; a person who keeps guard; a guard; a sentinel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXI 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 LXI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-61.html, id L00079.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXI 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 87%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 openA · nightB · brokenA · sightB · theeC · pryD · meC · jealousyD · greatE · awakeF · defeatE · sakeF · elsewhereG · nearG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Is it thy will, thy image should keep open | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| My heavy eyelids to the weary night? | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken, | 11 | ··˘/·/˘··/˘ |
| While shadows like to thee do mock my sight? | 10 | ·/········ |
| Is it thy spirit that thou send’st from thee | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| So far from home into my deeds to pry, | 10 | ·········· |
| To find out shames and idle hours in me, | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| The scope and tenure of thy jealousy? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| O, no! thy love, though much, is not so great: | 10 | ·········· |
| It is my love that keeps mine eye awake: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| To play the watchman ever for thy sake: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere, | 10 | ········/· |
| From me far off, with others all too near. | 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.