Sonnet XCVI
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;Both grace and faults are lov’d of more and less:Thou mak’st faults graces that to thee resort.As on the finger of a throned queenThe basest jewel will be well esteem’d,So are those errors that in thee are seenTo truths translated, and for true things deem’d.How many lambs might the stern wolf betray,If like a lamb he could his looks translate!How many gazers mightst thou lead away,If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state!But do not so; I love thee in such sort,As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
Words in this poem
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XCVI 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 XCVI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-96.html, id L00114.
Form and metre
Sonnet XCVI 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 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends 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 wantonnessA · sportB · lessA · resortB · queenC · esteem'dD · seenC · deem'dD · betrayE · translateF · awayE · stateF · sortG · reportG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Both grace and faults are lov’d of more and less: | 10 | ·········· |
| Thou mak’st faults graces that to thee resort. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| As on the finger of a throned queen | 10 | ···/˘···˘· |
| The basest jewel will be well esteem’d, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| So are those errors that in thee are seen | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To truths translated, and for true things deem’d. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| How many lambs might the stern wolf betray, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| If like a lamb he could his looks translate! | 10 | ········˘/ |
| How many gazers mightst thou lead away, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state! | 10 | ·········· |
| But do not so; I love thee in such sort, | 10 | ·········· |
| As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report. | 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.