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 | ··˘//˘···· |
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.