Sonnet XCVII
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 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.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How like a winter hath my absence been | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| 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 me | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| 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 | ····/˘·/˘· |
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