Sonnet 122 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, and first published in 1609. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man. Although the relationship started exuberantly in Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day") by now it has given way to an almost defensive tone. The poet justifies giving away or losing a notebook ("tables") given him by the youth to record shared events by saying that his memories of them are stronger.
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Sonnet 122 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 1st line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × / Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain (122.1)
Line 4 exhibits a mid-line reversal:
× / × / / × × / × / Beyond all date; even to eternity: (122.4)
Lines 3, 5, 11, and 14 all have potential initial reversals. Line 10 potentially incorporates a rightward movement of the third ictus (resulting in a four-position figure, × × / /
, sometimes referred to as a minor ionic):
× / × / × × / / × / Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score; (122.10)
However, if "thy" receives emphasis, the line becomes regular again.
The meter demands that line 4's "even" function as one syllable, and line 7's "oblivion" as three.[2]