But do thy worst to steal thyself away,For term of life thou art assured mine;And life no longer than thy love will stay,For it depends upon that love of thine.Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs,When in the least of them my life hath end.I see a better state to me belongsThan that which on thy humour doth dependThou canst not vex me with inconstant mind,Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie.O, what a happy title do I find,Happy to have thy love, happy to die!But what’s so blessed-fair that fears no blot?Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not. 481214 | ||
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Q1Q2Q3C But do thy worst to steal thyself away,For term of life thou art assured mine;And life no longer than thy love will stay,For it depends upon that love of thine.Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs,When in the least of them my life hath end.I see a better state to me belongsThan that which on thy humour doth dependThou canst not vex me with inconstant mind,Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie.O, what a happy title do I find,Happy to have thy love, happy to die!But what’s so blessed-fair that fears no blot?Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not. | ||
Sonnet 92 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 92 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:
× / × / × / × / × / Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs, (92.5)/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.The 12th line exhibits both an initial and a mid-line reversal:
/ × × / × / / × × / Happy to have thy love, happy to die! (92.12)The meter demands that both in line 2's "assurèd" and line 13's "blessèd", the -ed ending receives full syllabic status.