Sonnet 149
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Sonnet 149 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
It is considered a Dark Lady sonnet, as are all from 127 to 152.
Structure
Sonnet 149 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 8th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × / Revenge upon myself with present moan? (149.8)
- / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.
The last line begins with a common metrical variant, an initial reversal:
/ × × / × / × / × / Those that can see thou lov'st, and I am blind. (149.14)
Initial reversals are potentially present in lines 3, 4, and 14, and a mid-line reversal is potentially present in line 6.
The meter demands that line 2's "cruel" be pronounced as two syllables,[2] and line 11's "defect" (although a noun) be stressed on the second syllable.[3]
Notes
- OCLC 4770201.
- ^ Booth 2000, p. 522.
- ^ Kerrigan 1995, p. 382.
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.