Sonnet IX
Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye,That thou consum’st thyself in single life?Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,The world will wail thee like a makeless wife;The world will be thy widow and still weepThat thou no form of thee hast left behind,When every private widow well may keepBy children’s eyes, her husband’s shape in mind:Look! what an unthrift in the world doth spendShifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end,And kept unused the user so destroys it.No love toward others in that bosom sitsThat on himself such murd’rous shame commits.
Words in this poem
- issueless a.
- Having no issue or progeny; childless.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- unthrift n.
- Want of thrift; untriftiness; prodigality.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet IX 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 IX, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-9.html, id L00027.
Form and metre
Sonnet IX 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 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 29% 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 eyeA · lifeB · dieA · wifeB · weepC · behindD · keepC · mindD · spendE · itF · endE · itF · sitsG · commitsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That thou consum’st thyself in single life? | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| The world will wail thee like a makeless wife; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The world will be thy widow and still weep | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That thou no form of thee hast left behind, | 10 | ·········· |
| When every private widow well may keep | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| By children’s eyes, her husband’s shape in mind: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Look! what an unthrift in the world doth spend | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it; | 11 | ········˘/· |
| But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And kept unused the user so destroys it. | 11 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/· |
| No love toward others in that bosom sits | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| That on himself such murd’rous shame commits. | 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.