Sonnet LXIII
Against my love shall be as I am now,With Time’s injurious hand crush’d and o’erworn;When hours have drain’d his blood and fill’d his browWith lines and wrinkles; when his youthful mornHath travell’d on to age’s steepy night;And all those beauties whereof now he’s kingAre vanishing, or vanished out of sight,Stealing away the treasure of his spring;For such a time do I now fortifyAgainst confounding age’s cruel knife,That he shall never cut from memoryMy sweet love’s beauty, though my lover’s life:His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,And they shall live, and he in them still green.
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,]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- steepy a.
- Steep; precipitous.
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXIII 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 LXIII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-63.html, id L00081.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXIII 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%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 nowA · o'erwornB · browA · mornB · nightC · kingD · sightC · springD · fortifyE · knifeF · memoryE · lifeF · seenG · greenG
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 my love shall be as I am now, | 10 | ·········· |
| With Time’s injurious hand crush’d and o’erworn; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| When hours have drain’d his blood and fill’d his brow | 10 | ·/········ |
| With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Hath travell’d on to age’s steepy night; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And all those beauties whereof now he’s king | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Are vanishing, or vanished out of sight, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Stealing away the treasure of his spring; | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| For such a time do I now fortify | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Against confounding age’s cruel knife, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| That he shall never cut from memory | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| My sweet love’s beauty, though my lover’s life: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| His beauty shall in these black lines be seen, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And they shall live, and he in them still green. | 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.