Sonnet LXIX
Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth viewWant nothing that the thought of hearts can mend;All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due,Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend.Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown’d;But those same tongues, that give thee so thine own,In other accents do this praise confoundBy seeing farther than the eye hath shown.They look into the beauty of thy mind,And that in guess they measure by thy deeds;Then churls their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
Words in this poem
- odour n.
- Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume. [OE. odor, odour, OF. odor, odour, F. odeur, fr. L. odor; akin to olere to smell, Gr. Olfactory, Osmium, Ozone, Redolent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXIX 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 LXIX, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-69.html, id L00087.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXIX 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 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 viewA · mendB · dueA · commendB · crown'dC · ownD · confoundC · shownD · mindE · deedsF · kindE · weedsF · showG · growG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view | 10 | ·········· |
| Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due, | 10 | ·········· |
| Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend. | 10 | /˘··/···˘/ |
| Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown’d; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But those same tongues, that give thee so thine own, | 10 | ·········· |
| In other accents do this praise confound | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| By seeing farther than the eye hath shown. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| They look into the beauty of thy mind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And that in guess they measure by thy deeds; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Then churls their thoughts, although their eyes were kind, | 10 | ·········· |
| To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds: | 10 | ···/······ |
| But why thy odour matcheth not thy show, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The soil is this, that thou dost common grow. | 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.