Sonnet 121 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 his young lover.

Synopsis

The poet condemns hypocrisy and decides he's going to be himself. Hypocrites force you to lose out on life's fair pleasures. They are bad by pointing out your faultsult may actually be a good thing. You have to hide your pleasurable pursuits from them. Unless they realize that all people are bad (and presumably they will stop being hypocrites)

Structure

Sonnet 121 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB r ...

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 1st line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

  ×   /  ×   /  ×  /     ×   /   ×  / 
'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd, (121.1)

Four lines (2, 4, 9, and 11) have a final extrametrical syllable or ''feminine ending'', as for example:

 /   × ×    /  ×     /   × /  ×     /(×) 
Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing: (121.4)

:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''. (×) = extrametrical syllable. Line 4 (above) also exhibits another common metrical variation, an initial reversal. Initial reversals are potentially present in lines 7, 8, and 11. The 3rd line features one (potentially two; the second can be otherwise scanned) rightward movements of an ictus (resulting in a four-position figure, × × / /, sometimes referred to as a ''minor ionic''):

×     ×  /     /  ×    /      ×   ×   /  / 
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deem'd (121.3)

A similar minor ionic is potentially present in line 12's "By their rank thoughts", though not if "their" receives contrastive accent. The meter demands that line 13's "general" function as two syllables.

Notes

References

External links

Shakespeare's Sonnets online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 121 British poems Sonnets by William Shakespeare