Sonnet 49 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.
Structure
Sonnet 49 is an English or Shakespearean
sonnet. The English sonnet contains three
quatrains followed by a final rhyming
couplet, for a total of fourteen lines. It follows the form's 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 ...
, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and is written 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. Line thirteen exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × /
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws, (49.13)
:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''.
Line ten's "desert" would have been for Shakespeare a full rhyme with "part", as is suggested by the Quarto's spelling, "desart".
[Kerrigan 1995, p 233.]
Notes
Further reading
External links
Analysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 049
British poems
Sonnets by William Shakespeare