Sonnet XCVIII
From you have I been absent in the spring,When proud-pied April, dress’d in all his trim,Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him.Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smellOf different flowers in odour and in hue,Could make me any summer’s story tell,Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;They were but sweet, but figures of delight,Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.Yet seem’d it winter still, and you away,As with your shadow I with these did play.
Words in this poem
- odour n.
- Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume. [OE. odor, odour, OF. odor, odour, F. odeur, fr. L. odor; akin to olere to smell, Gr. Olfactory, Osmium, Ozone, Redolent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XCVIII 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 XCVIII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-98.html, id L00116.
Form and metre
Sonnet XCVIII 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 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% 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 springA · trimB · thingA · himB · smellC · hueD · tellC · grewD · whiteE · roseF · delightE · thoseF · awayG · playG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From you have I been absent in the spring, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When proud-pied April, dress’d in all his trim, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell | 10 | ·········· |
| Of different flowers in odour and in hue, | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘··· |
| Could make me any summer’s story tell, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew: | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| They were but sweet, but figures of delight, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Yet seem’d it winter still, and you away, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| As with your shadow I with these did play. | 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.