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Sonnet XCVII

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) · 1609

iambic pentameter · English sonnet · 14 lines · from The Sonnets

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How like a winter hath my absence beenFrom thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!What old December’s bareness everywhere!And yet this time removed was summer’s time;The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:Yet this abundant issue seem’d to meBut hope of orphans, and unfather’d fruit;For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,And, thou away, the very birds are mute:Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer,That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.

Words in this poem

bareness n.
The state of being bare.
teeming a.
Prolific; productive.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Sonnet XCVII 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 XCVII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-97.html, id L00115.

Form and metre

Sonnet XCVII 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%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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. 1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG beenA · yearB · seenA · everywhereB · timeC · increaseD · primeC · deceaseD · meE · fruitF · theeE · muteF · cheerG · nearG
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.

LineSyl.Stress
How like a winter hath my absence been10···/˘··/˘·
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!10···/˘··/˘·
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!10·/˘·······
What old December’s bareness everywhere!10··˘/˘/˘/˘·
And yet this time removed was summer’s time;10····˘/·/˘·
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,10·/˘/˘···˘/
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,10/˘·/˘/˘···
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:10·/˘·····˘/
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me10··˘/˘/˘···
But hope of orphans, and unfather’d fruit;10···/˘·····
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,10·/˘··/˘···
And, thou away, the very birds are mute:10··˘/·/˘···
Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer,10··········
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.10····/˘·/˘·

On this poem

Sonnets 97 -99 seem unconnected with those preceding and follow- ing. I doubt whether they have anything to do with " Mr. W. H." or are addressed to a man. See p. 13 above. Since the Introduc- tion was written I see that Hudson {Life, Art, and Characters of S.) declares his belief that Sonn. 97-99, also those punning on the name of Will, together with 109-117, were addressed to Anne Hathaway. He is satisfied that when S. wrote these sonnets, "his thoughts were travelling home to the bride of his youth and mother of his children."
Notes from the edition 5

Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan

  1. Line 5 This time removed. "This time in which I was remote or absent from thee" (Malone). Cf. T. N. v. 1. 92: "a twenty years removed thing."
  2. Line 6 The teeming autumn, etc. Malone compares M. N. D. ii. 1, 112 : "The childing autumn," etc.
  3. Line 7 Prime. Spring ; as in R. of L. 332 : " To add a more re- joicing to the prime."
  4. Line 10 Hope of orphans. Probably = hope of posthumous offspring, as Tyler makes it.
  5. Line 13 Cheer. Face, countenance ; its original sense ; as in M. Ar. D. iii. 2. 96: "pale of cheer," etc. Schmidt puts it under cheer = ;' cheerfulness."

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