Sonnet 79

«

»

Sonnet 79

Sonnet 79.jpg

–William Shakespeare

Sonnet 79 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is part of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man, and the second sonnet of the Rival Poet subsequence.

Synopsis

When the poet wrote of the youth, his verse partook of his the youth's charms. But now his poetry has weakened another poet has taken his place. This poet takes the beauties and virtues of his verse from the youth and returns them to him in the form of poetry. Therefore the youth owes him no thanks for his verse, since he has given it its merits.

Structure

Sonnet 79 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 2nd line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

 ×  /    × /    ×  /     ×  /  ×    / 
My verse alone had all thy gentle grace; (79.2)

/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.

The sonnet is metrically quite regular; however, the 4th line may be scanned with a rightward movement of the first ictus (the resulting four-position figure, × × / /, is sometimes referred to as a minor ionic):

×    ×  /    /    ×    /   ×  /  ×    / 
And my sick Muse doth give an other place. (79.4)

The meter demands a 2-syllable pronunciation of "worthier" in the 6th line.

References

First edition and facsimile

Variorum editions

Modern critical editions

• online text