Sonnet 137
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Sonnet 137 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
Structure
Sonnet 137 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical rhyme scheme of the form abab cdcd efef gg and is composed in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The 5th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × / If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks, (137.5)
- / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.
Line 11 begins with the rightward movement of the first ictus (resulting in a four-position figure, × × / /
, sometimes referred to as a minor ionic):
× × / / × / × / × / Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not, (137.11)
A minor ionic potentially occurs in line 10. Several lines (3, 7, 8, 9, 14) potentially contain either initial or mid-line reversals. The mid-line reversal of line 14 is metrically more complex:
× / × / / × × / × / And to this false plague are they now transferred. (137.14)
The first ictus may fall on any of the first three words, but the complex element is "false plague": Peter Groves calls this a "harsh mapping", and recommends that in performance "the best thing to do is to prolong the subordinated S-syllable [here, "false"] ... the effect of this is to throw a degree of emphasis on it".[2]
The meter demands that line 7's "forgèd" be pronounced as two syllables.[3]
Notes
- OCLC 4770201.
- ISBN 978-1-921867-81-1.
- ^ Booth 2000, p. 119.
References
- First edition and facsimile
- Shakespeare, William (1609). Shake-speares Sonnets: Never Before Imprinted. London: Thomas Thorpe.
- OCLC 458829162.
- Variorum editions
- OCLC 234756.
- Modern critical editions
- Atkins, Carl D., ed. (2007). Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary. Madison: OCLC 86090499.
- OCLC 2968040.
- Burrow, Colin, ed. (2002). The Complete Sonnets and Poems. OCLC 48532938.
- OCLC 32272082.
- OCLC 15018446.
- Mowat, Barbara A.; Werstine, Paul, eds. (2006). Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems. OCLC 64594469.
- OCLC 46683809.
- OCLC 36806589.