Sonnet 100


Sonnet 100 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.

Structure

Sonnet 100 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 5th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

 × / × / × / × / × / 
Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem

The 3rd line exhibits a common metrical variant, the initial reversal, which is also present in lines 4, 7, and potentially 9:

 / × × / × / × / × / 
Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,

The 13th line generates a somewhat complex rhythm, incorporating an initial and a mid-line reversal, as well as two non-ictic stresses :

 / × × / / × × / × / 
Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life;