Sonnet 119


Sonnet 119 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.

Structure

Sonnet 119 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 3rd line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

× /× / × / × / × / 
Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears,

An unusual number of lines feature a final extrametrical syllable or feminine ending, as for example:

 / × × / / × × / × / 
How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted,

Line 7 also features an initial reversal, and potentially a mid-line reversal. Other potential initial reversals occur in lines 6, 8, and 13, while potential mid-line reversals occur in lines 9 and 11.
The meter demands that line 6's "blessèd" is pronounced as two syllables.

Interpretations