Sonnet 148


Sonnet 148 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
It is considered a Dark Lady sonnet, as are all from 127 to 152.

Structure

Sonnet 148 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 13th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

× / × / × / × / × / 
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind,

Line 2 exhibits a rightward movement of the fourth ictus, and line 3 has a mid-line reversal and and initial reversal:

 × / × / × / × × / / 
Which have no correspondence with true sight!
/ × × / / × × / × / 
Or, if they have, where is my judgement fled,

Initial reversals also potentially occur in lines 7, 8, and 11, with a potential mid-line reversal in line 1. Potential minor ionics occur in lines 6, 9, 10, and 14.