Sonnet 107 is one of
154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
. It is a member of the
Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.
Synopsis
This poem repeats the theme of others, notably
sonnet 18
"Sonnet 18" is one of the best-known of the 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
In the sonnet, the speaker asks whether he should compare the Fair Youth to a summer's day, but notes that he has qua ...
, that the poem itself will survive human mortality, and both the poet and Fair Youth will achieve immortality through it. In this case all the hazards of an unpredictable future are added to the inevitability of mortality.
Structure
Sonnet 107 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
Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called " feet". "Iam ...
, a type of poetic
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The 14th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × /
When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent. (107.14)
:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''.
Frequent variations make this sonnet metrically complex. The 2nd line begins with the rightward movement of the first ictus (resulting in a four-position figure,
× × / /, sometimes referred to as a ''minor ionic''), and follows with a mid-line reversal ("dreaming"), which places three ictuses in a row:
× × / / / × × / × /
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, (107.2)
Both of these metrical variations reappear in the poem: Mid-line reversals occur in lines 1 and 8, and an initial reversal occurs in line 9. Minor ionics occur in line 6 and potentially in lines 3 and 11.
In line 4, "confin'd" is "double-stressed in Shakespeare's English, and follow
the Alternating Stress Rule", moving its principal stress to the first syllable in the context of "confin'd doom".
Analysis
The line about the eclipse of the moon has sometimes been interpreted as reference to death of
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
Sonnet 107 can also be seen as referring to Doomsday. The sonneteer's love cannot even be ended by the "confined doom." The eclipse of the moon, then, like the "sad augurs," refers to a sign that might presage the Last Judgment. While everything else (the "tombs of brass" for example) comes to an end, the "poor rhyme" will be the last thing to go. As in Sonnet 55, the power of the sonnet to give life to the young man—or, here, to serve as a monument to him—will only be overshadowed when that young man literally comes forth from the grave on Judgment Day.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 107
British poems
Sonnets by William Shakespeare