A tetrameter sonnet

Sonnet CXLV.

THOSE lips that Love�s own hand did make
Breath�d forth the sound that said �I hate,�
To me that languish�d for her sake:
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was us�d in giving gentle doom;
And taught it thus anew to greet;
�I hate,� she alter�d with an end,
That follow�d it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away.
�I hate� from hate away she threw,
And sav�d my life, saying��Not you.�

— William Shakespeare, from W. J. Craig’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. London: Oxford University Press: 1914; Bartleby.com, 2000.

Paul Fussell opines that not even Shakespeare can make the bouncy four/four rhythm of iambic tetrameter work in a sonnet.

The poster at Shakespeare’s Sonnets has this to say about this particular number:

This is the only sonnet of the 154 which is not written in the usual iambic pentameter (verses of five feet consisting of a short followed by a long syllable) but of the more jerky iambic tetrameter, or octosyllabic verse, which is thought to be more appropriate for epigrammatic and comic verse. It is a sonnet that is not highly regarded, being thought of as rather trivial, and most commentators would prefer to discard it. It has been suggested** that it might be a piece of juvenilia, written in 1582, which Shakespeare subsequently adapted to fit in with the sonnets. This involves a pun on Anne Hathaway in line 13, and possibly another pun, (suggested by Booth) in line 14, ‘Anne saved my life’. (SB.p.501).

Tempting though these suggestions are, I think they are overcome by the supreme difficulty of imagining how Shakespeare could have familiarized himself at this early stage with the sonnet tradition and its language and ideas.

The poster also notes the way this poem echoes some themes (probably universal at the time) from Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, a sonnet sequence written in hexameter or six beat rhymes. Fussell and others have argued that six beat lines don’t work in English either because they tend to divide into two three-beat lines. These are the theorists who argue that an iambic pentameter line is the perfect one for English poetry.

Possibly related posts:

When all else fails, turn to Shakespeare

There are trials, and then there are trials

A is for Anne

Donne on Sunday

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