Sonnet LXXXII
I grant thou wert not married to my Muse,And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlookThe dedicated words which writers useOf their fair subject, blessing every book.Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,Finding thy worth a limit past my praise;And therefore art enforced to seek anewSome fresher stamp of the time-bettering days.And do so, love; yet when they have devis’d,What strained touches rhetoric can lend,Thou truly fair, wert truly sympathiz’dIn true plain words, by thy true-telling friend;And their gross painting might be better us’dWhere cheeks need blood; in thee it is abus’d.
Words in this poem
- attaint v. t.
- To attain; to get act; to hit. [OE. atteynten to convict, fr. atteynt, OF. ateint, p. p. of ateindre, ataindre. The meanings 3, 4, 5, and 6 were influenced by a supposed connection with taint.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXXXII 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 LXXXII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-82.html, id L00100.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXXXII 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 84%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 36% 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 museA · o'erlookB · useA · bookB · hueC · praiseD · anewC · daysD · devis'dE · lendF · sympathiz'dE · friendF · us'dG · abus'dG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I grant thou wert not married to my Muse, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlook | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The dedicated words which writers use | 10 | ·/˘˘˘··/˘· |
| Of their fair subject, blessing every book. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Finding thy worth a limit past my praise; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And therefore art enforced to seek anew | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And do so, love; yet when they have devis’d, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| What strained touches rhetoric can lend, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| Thou truly fair, wert truly sympathiz’d | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| In true plain words, by thy true-telling friend; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And their gross painting might be better us’d | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abus’d. | 10 | ········˘/ |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 5
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 2 Attaint. Blame, discredit. Cf. the verb in 88. 7 below. O'erlook = peruse ; as in M. N. D. ii. 2. 121, Lear, v. I. 50, etc.
- Line 3 Dedicated words. Perhaps referring to an actual or proposed dedication of a book.
- Line 5 Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue. " S. had celebrated his friend's beauty (hue) ; perhaps his learned rival had celebrated the patron's knowledge ; such excellence reached ' a limit past the praise ' of Shakspere, who knew small Latin and less Greek " (Dowden). Tyler adds : " Subsequently, in the title to a sonnet accompanying his translation of the Iliad, Chapman addressed Pembroke as ' the Learned and Most Noble Patron of Learning,' and the sonnet celebrates Pembroke's 'god-like learning."'
- Line 8 The time-bettering days. Cf. 32. 10 : "this growing age."
- Line 10 Strained. Forced, overwrought. Surely, some of Shake- speare's laudation of his friend is sufficiently strained.
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