Sonnet LXX
That thou art blam’d shall not be thy defect,For slander’s mark was ever yet the fair;The ornament of beauty is suspect,A crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air.So thou be good, slander doth but approveThy worth the greater being woo’d of time;For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,And thou present’st a pure unstained prime.Thou hast passed by the ambush of young daysEither not assail’d, or victor being charg’d;Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,To tie up envy, evermore enlarg’d,If some suspect of ill mask’d not thy show,Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.
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,]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXX 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 LXX, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-70.html, id L00088.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXX 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 88%). 92% 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. 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 defectA · fairB · suspectA · airB · approveC · timeD · loveC · primeD · daysE · charg'dF · praiseE · enlarg'dF · showG · oweG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That thou art blam’d shall not be thy defect, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| For slander’s mark was ever yet the fair; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The ornament of beauty is suspect, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘·˘/ |
| A crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| So thou be good, slander doth but approve | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| Thy worth the greater being woo’d of time; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And thou present’st a pure unstained prime. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Thou hast passed by the ambush of young days | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Either not assail’d, or victor being charg’d; | 10 | /˘·˘/·/˘/· |
| Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| To tie up envy, evermore enlarg’d, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| If some suspect of ill mask’d not thy show, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe. | 10 | ··˘//˘···· |
Notes from the edition 6
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 1 Art. The quarto has "are ; " corrected in the ed. of 1640.
- Line 3 Suspect. Suspicion. For the noun, which S. uses some dozen times, cf. Rich. III. i. 3. 89, iii. 5. 32, etc.
- Line 6 Thy. Again the quarto has '"Their." The frequency of this mistake was apparently due to confusing the abbreviations of the words. Being woo'd of time. " IScing solicited or tempted by the present times" (Dowden). Tyler connects it with slander, and explains the passage thus: "Slander coming under the soothing influence of time will show thy worth to Ix; greater," or "slander will turn to praise in course of time, and your true character will shine forth." This seems, on the whole, more plausible, but neither explanation is convincing. Verity explains it as = " tempted by thy youth ; " comparing line 9 and Sonn. 12. 3, 4. Steevens quotes Jonson, Every Man Out of Ins Humour, prol. : "Oh, how I hate the mon- strousness of time" (that is, the times). Staunton conjectures " crime " for time.
- Line 7 Canker. The canker-worm ; as in 35. 4 above, and 95. 2, 99. 12 below. Cf. T. G. of ]'. i. 1. 45, Af. JV. D. ii. 2. 3, etc.
- Line 12 To tie up. As to tie up, that is, silence. Cf. M. N. D. iii. 1. 206: "Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently." See also R. and J. iv. 5. 32 and M. for M. iii. 2. 199. Enlarg'd = set at large, given free scope. Hales writes to Dowden on this passage : " Surely a reference here to the Faerie Queene, end of book vi. Calidore ties up the Blatant Beast ; after a time he breaks his iron chain, ' and got into the world at liberty again,' that is, is evermore enlarged." It seems to me doubtful whether S. had this in mind.
- Line 14 Owe. Own, possess. Cf. 18. 10 above.
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.