Sonnet 114

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Sonnet 114 in the 1609 Quarto
Q1 Q2 Q3 C Or whether doth my mind, being crown’d with you, Drink up the monarch’s plague, this flattery? Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith true, And that your love taught it this alchemy, To make of monsters and things indigest Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble, Creating every bad a perfect best, As fast as objects to his beams assemble? O, ’tis the first; ’tis flattery in my seeing, And my great mind most kingly drinks it up: Mine eye well knows what with his gust is ’greeing, And to his palate doth prepare the cup: If it be poison’d, ’tis the lesser sin That mine eye loves it and doth first begin. 4 8 12 14 —William Shakespeare

Sonnet 114 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.

Synopsis

Is the poet's mind flattered, like a king, by the youth's presence, or is it simply a truth that is being told by his eyes that ugly things are made beautiful by the mental image of the youth? Surely it must be flattery, that he consumes like a king. He knows he enjoys it even if it's poisonous. Even if it is, it's less of a sin because his eye is motivated by love.

Structure

Sonnet 114 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 7th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

  ×/ ×   /   ×  /  ×  /  ×    / 
Creating every bad a perfect best, (114.7)

Lines 6, 8, 9, and 11 have a final extrametrical syllable or feminine ending:

 ×     / × /   ×   ×     /    /    × / (×) 
Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble, (114.6)

/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus. (×) = extrametrical syllable.

Line 6 exhibits another metrical variation, the rightward movement of the third ictus (resulting in a four-position figure, × × / /, sometimes referred to as a minor ionic). Minor ionics may potentially be found in lines 5 and 10. Another metrical variation, a mid-line reversal, is found in line 4:

×     /   ×    /    /     ×    ×  /   × / 
And that your love taught it this alchemy, (114.4)

An initial reversal is potentially present in line 2.

The meter demands a few variant pronunciations: Line 1's "being" functions as one syllable, and line 9's "flattery" as two.

References

First edition and facsimile

• Shakespeare, William (1609). Shake-speares Sonnets: Never Before Imprinted. London: Thomas Thorpe.
• Lee, Sidney, ed. (1905). Shakespeares Sonnets: Being a reproduction in facsimile of the first edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OCLC 458829162.

Variorum editions

• Alden, Raymond Macdonald, ed. (1916). The Sonnets of Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. OCLC 234756.
• Rollins, Hyder Edward, ed. (1944). A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Sonnets [2 Volumes]. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. OCLC 6028485. — Volume I and Volume II at the Internet Archive

Modern critical editions

• Atkins, Carl D., ed. (2007). Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-4163-7. OCLC 86090499.
• Booth, Stephen, ed. (2000) [1st ed. 1977]. Shakespeare's Sonnets (Rev. ed.). New Haven: Yale Nota Bene. ISBN 0-300-01959-9. OCLC 2968040.
• Burrow, Colin, ed. (2002). The Complete Sonnets and Poems. The Oxford Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192819338. OCLC 48532938.
• Дункан-Джонс, Кэтрин , изд. (2010) [1-е изд. 1997]. Сонеты Шекспира . Арден Шекспир , третья серия (Ред. Ред.). Лондон: Блумсбери . ISBN  978-1-4080-1797-5 . OCLC   755065951 . - 1-е издание в Интернет-архиве.
• Эванс, Дж. Блейкмор , изд. (1996). Сонеты . Новый Кембриджский Шекспир . Кембридж: Издательство Кембриджского университета . ISBN  978-0521294034 . ОСЛК   32272082 .
• Керриган, Джон , изд. (1995) [1-е изд. 1986]. Сонеты; и «Жалоба любовника» . Новый Пингвин Шекспир (Ред. Ред.). Книги о пингвинах . ISBN  0-14-070732-8 . OCLC   15018446 .
• Моват, Барбара А.; Верстин, Пол, ред. (2006). Сонеты и стихи Шекспира . Библиотека Фолджера Шекспира . Нью-Йорк: Washington Square Press . ISBN  978-0743273282 . OCLC   64594469 .
• Оргел, Стивен , изд. (2001). Сонеты . Пеликан Шекспир (Ред. Ред.). Нью-Йорк: Книги Пингвина . ISBN  978-0140714531 . OCLC   46683809 .
• Вендлер, Хелен , изд. (1997). Искусство сонетов Шекспира . Кембридж, Массачусетс: Издательство Belknap Press Гарвардского университета . ISBN  0-674-63712-7 . OCLC   36806589 .