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 114is one of154 sonnetswritten by the English playwright and poetWilliam Shakespeare.It is a member of theFair Youthsequence, 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 Shakespeareansonnet.The English sonnet has threequatrains,followed by a final rhymingcouplet.It follows the typicalrhyme schemeof the form ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and is composed iniambic pentameter,a type of poeticmetrebased 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 orfeminine 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 aminor 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.OCLC458829162.

Variorum editions

• Alden, Raymond Macdonald,ed. (1916).The Sonnets of Shakespeare.Boston:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.OCLC234756.
• Rollins, Hyder Edward,ed. (1944).A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Sonnets [2 Volumes].Philadelphia:J. B. Lippincott & Co.OCLC6028485.—Volume IandVolume IIat theInternet Archive

Modern critical editions

• Atkins, Carl D., ed. (2007).Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary.Madison:Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.ISBN978-0-8386-4163-7.OCLC86090499.
• Booth, Stephen,ed. (2000) [1st ed. 1977].Shakespeare's Sonnets(Rev. ed.). New Haven:Yale Nota Bene.ISBN0-300-01959-9.OCLC2968040.
• Burrow, Colin, ed. (2002).The Complete Sonnets and Poems.The Oxford Shakespeare.Oxford:Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0192819338.OCLC48532938.
• Duncan-Jones, Katherine,ed. (2010) [1st ed. 1997].Shakespeare's Sonnets.Arden Shakespeare,third series (Rev. ed.). London:Bloomsbury.ISBN978-1-4080-1797-5.OCLC755065951.—1st editionat theInternet Archive
• Evans, G. Blakemore,ed. (1996).The Sonnets.The New Cambridge Shakespeare.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521294034.OCLC32272082.
• Kerrigan, John,ed. (1995) [1st ed. 1986].The Sonnets; and, A Lover's Complaint.New Penguin Shakespeare(Rev. ed.).Penguin Books.ISBN0-14-070732-8.OCLC15018446.
• Mowat, Barbara A.; Werstine, Paul, eds. (2006).Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems.Folger Shakespeare Library.New York:Washington Square Press.ISBN978-0743273282.OCLC64594469.
• Orgel, Stephen,ed. (2001).The Sonnets.The Pelican Shakespeare (Rev. ed.). New York:Penguin Books.ISBN978-0140714531.OCLC46683809.
• Vendler, Helen,ed. (1997).The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts:The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.ISBN0-674-63712-7.OCLC36806589.