Sonnet 58


's Sonnet 58 is a syntactic and thematic continuation of Sonnet 57. More generally, it belongs to the large group of sonnets written to a young, aristocratic man, with whom the poem's speaker shares a tempestuous relationship. In this poem, the speaker complains of the beloved's voluntary absence, using the occasion to outline a more general lament against his own powerlessness and the indifference of the young man.

Structure

Sonnet 58 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The Shakespearean sonnet contains three quatrains followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the form's typical rhyme scheme, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and is written a type of poetic metre called iambic pentameter based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The first line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter; the second adds a final extrametrical syllable or feminine ending:

 × / × / × / × / × / 
That God forbid, that made me first your slave,
× / × / × / × / × / 
I should in thought control your times of pleasure,

The meter demands a few variant pronunciations. Lines three and six require the contraction of "the" and the ensuing word: "th'account" and "th'imprisoned". In line three "hours" is one syllable, and in line seven "sufferance" is two.