Sonnet 84

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Sonnet 84

Sonnet 84 1609.jpg

–William Shakespeare

Sonnet 84 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man, and the seventh sonnet of the Rival Poet subsequence.

Synopsis

Who can say more than that the youth is who he is? Writing normally adds glory to its theme, but the youth can only glorify writing by his own perfection, creating a literary style to be admired. But the youth's love of flattery corrupts the praises of his admirers.

Structure

Sonnet 84 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 11th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

×    /   ×  /   ×  /     ×    /    ×   / 
And such a counterpart shall fame his wit,

 / ×    ×    /   ×  / ×  /   ×   / 
Making his style admired every where. (84.11-12)

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

It is followed (in line 12) by an initial reversal, a common metrical variation.

The meter demands a few variant pronunciations: line 3's "confine" is stressed on the second syllable (even though a noun) and "immurèd" must be pronounced with 3 syllables; while line 13's "beauteous" serves as 2 syllables and 14's "being" serves as 1.

References

First edition and facsimile

Variorum editions

Modern critical editions

• online text