Sonnet VIII
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:Why lov’st thou that which thou receiv’st not gladly,Or else receiv’st with pleasure thine annoy?If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,By unions married, do offend thine ear,They do but sweetly chide thee, who confoundsIn singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;Resembling sire and child and happy mother,Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,Sings this to thee: ‘Thou single wilt prove none.’
Words in this poem
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
- singleness n.
- The quality or state of being single, or separate from all others; the opposite of doubleness, complication, or multiplicity.
- ordering n.
- Disposition; distribution; management. South.
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- speechless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet VIII 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 VIII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-8.html, id L00026.
Form and metre
Sonnet VIII 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 80%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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 sadlyA · joyB · gladlyA · annoyB · soundsC · earD · confoundsC · bearD · anotherE · orderingF · motherE · singF · oneG · noneG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? | 11 | /˘·····/˘/˘ |
| Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy: | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Why lov’st thou that which thou receiv’st not gladly, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Or else receiv’st with pleasure thine annoy? | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, | 10 | ···/····˘· |
| By unions married, do offend thine ear, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| Strikes each in each by mutual ordering; | 11 | ·····/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Resembling sire and child and happy mother, | 11 | ˘/˘/···/˘/˘ |
| Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Whose speechless song being many, seeming one, | 10 | ·/˘·//˘/˘· |
| Sings this to thee: ‘Thou single wilt prove none.’ | 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.