Sonnet LXXXVI
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,Bound for the prize of all too precious you,That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write,Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?No, neither he, nor his compeers by nightGiving him aid, my verse astonished.He, nor that affable familiar ghostWhich nightly gulls him with intelligence,As victors of my silence cannot boast;I was not sick of any fear from thence:But when your countenance fill’d up his line,Then lacked I matter; that enfeebled mine.
Words in this poem
- inhearse v. t.
- To put in, or as in, a hearse or coffin.
- womb n.
- The belly; the abdomen. [OE. wombe, wambe, AS. wamb, womb; akin to D. wam belly, OS. & OHG. wamba, G. wamme, wampe, Icel. vömb, Sw. v&mb, Dan. vom, Goth. wamba.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LXXXVI 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 LXXXVI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-86.html, id L00104.
Form and metre
Sonnet LXXXVI 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 86%). 92% 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. 14% 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 verseA · youB · inhearseA · grewB · writeC · deadD · nightC · astonishedD · ghostE · intelligenceF · boastE · thenceF · lineG · mineG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Was it the proud full sail of his great verse, | 10 | ·········· |
| Bound for the prize of all too precious you, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew? | 10 | /˘········ |
| Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| No, neither he, nor his compeers by night | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Giving him aid, my verse astonished. | 10 | /˘····˘/˘˘ |
| He, nor that affable familiar ghost | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/˘· |
| Which nightly gulls him with intelligence, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| As victors of my silence cannot boast; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| I was not sick of any fear from thence: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But when your countenance fill’d up his line, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Then lacked I matter; that enfeebled mine. | 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.