Sonnet LXXVII
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;These vacant leaves thy mind’s imprint will bear,And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste.The wrinkles which thy glass will truly showOf mouthed graves will give thee memory;Thou by thy dial’s shady stealth mayst knowTime’s thievish progress to eternity.Look! what thy memory cannot contain,Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt findThose children nursed, deliver’d from thy brain,To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.
Words in this poem
- stealth n.
- The act of stealing; theft. [OE. staple. See Steal, v. t.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXXVII 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 LXXVII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-77.html, id L00095.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXXVII 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%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 wearA · wasteB · bearA · tasteB · showC · memoryD · knowC · eternityD · containE · findF · brainE · mindF · lookG · bookG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| These vacant leaves thy mind’s imprint will bear, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Of mouthed graves will give thee memory; | 10 | ··˘····/˘˘ |
| Thou by thy dial’s shady stealth mayst know | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Time’s thievish progress to eternity. | 10 | ·/˘/··˘/˘˘ |
| Look! what thy memory cannot contain, | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/˘/ |
| Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Those children nursed, deliver’d from thy brain, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| To take a new acquaintance of thy mind. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| These offices, so oft as thou wilt look, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book. | 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.