Sonnet LXIV
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defac’dThe rich-proud cost of outworn buried age;When sometime lofty towers I see down-raz’d,And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;When I have seen the hungry ocean gainAdvantage on the kingdom of the shore,And the firm soil win of the watery main,Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;When I have seen such interchange of state,Or state itself confounded, to decay;Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate:That Time will come and take my love away.This thought is as a death which cannot chooseBut weep to have, that which it fears to lose.
Words in this poem
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
- ruminate v. i.
- To chew the cud; to chew again what has been slightly chewed and swallowed. [L. ruminatus, p.p. of ruminari, ruminare, fr. rumen, -inis, throat, akin to ructare to belch, erugere to belch out, Gr. roccettan.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXIV 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 LXIV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-64.html, id L00082.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXIV 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 91%). 96% 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 defac'dA · ageB · raz'dA · rageB · gainC · shoreD · mainC · storeD · stateE · decayF · ruminateE · awayF · chooseG · loseG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defac’d | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When sometime lofty towers I see down-raz’d, | 10 | ·/·/˘/···· |
| And brass eternal slave to mortal rage; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| When I have seen the hungry ocean gain | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| And the firm soil win of the watery main, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Increasing store with loss, and loss with store; | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| When I have seen such interchange of state, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Or state itself confounded, to decay; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate: | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| That Time will come and take my love away. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| This thought is as a death which cannot choose | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But weep to have, that which it fears to lose. | 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.