Sonnet LXXXI
Or I shall live your epitaph to make,Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;From hence your memory death cannot take,Although in me each part will be forgotten.Your name from hence immortal life shall have,Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:The earth can yield me but a common grave,When you entombed in men’s eyes shall lie.Your monument shall be my gentle verse,Which eyes not yet created shall o’er-read;And tongues to be, your being shall rehearse,When all the breathers of this world are dead;You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen,Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.
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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXXXI 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 LXXXI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-81.html, id L00099.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXXXI 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 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 makeA · rottenB · takeA · forgottenB · haveC · dieD · graveC · lieD · verseE · readF · rehearseE · deadF · penG · menG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Or I shall live your epitaph to make, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Or you survive when I in earth am rotten; | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| From hence your memory death cannot take, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Although in me each part will be forgotten. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Your name from hence immortal life shall have, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Though I, once gone, to all the world must die: | 10 | ·········· |
| The earth can yield me but a common grave, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When you entombed in men’s eyes shall lie. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Your monument shall be my gentle verse, | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Which eyes not yet created shall o’er-read; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And tongues to be, your being shall rehearse, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| When all the breathers of this world are dead; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men. | 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.