Sonnet LXXXIII
I never saw that you did painting need,And therefore to your fair no painting set;I found, or thought I found, you did exceedThat barren tender of a poet’s debt:And therefore have I slept in your report,That you yourself, being extant, well might showHow far a modern quill doth come too short,Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.This silence for my sin you did impute,Which shall be most my glory being dumb;For I impair not beauty being mute,When others would give life, and bring a tomb.There lives more life in one of your fair eyesThan both your poets can in praise devise.
Words in this poem
- extant a.
- Standing out or above any surface; protruded. [L. extans, -antis, or exstans, -antis, p.pr. of extare, exstare, to stand out or forth; ex out + stare to stand: cf. F. extant. See Stand.]
- 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 LXXXIII 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 LXXXIII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-83.html, id L00101.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXXXIII 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 92%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 needA · setB · exceedA · debtB · reportC · showD · shortC · growD · imputeE · dumbF · muteE · tombF · eyesG · deviseG
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 never saw that you did painting need, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And therefore to your fair no painting set; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I found, or thought I found, you did exceed | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That barren tender of a poet’s debt: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And therefore have I slept in your report, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That you yourself, being extant, well might show | 10 | ··˘///˘··· |
| How far a modern quill doth come too short, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow. | 10 | /˘········ |
| This silence for my sin you did impute, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Which shall be most my glory being dumb; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| For I impair not beauty being mute, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| When others would give life, and bring a tomb. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| There lives more life in one of your fair eyes | 10 | ·········· |
| Than both your poets can in praise devise. | 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.