Shakespeare's Sonnets: Not mine own fears nor the prophetic soul

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Not mine own fears nor the prophetic soul

Sonnet 107

Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): g3r.
1Not mine own fears nor the prophetic soul
2Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come,
3Can yet the lease of my true love control,
4Suppos'd as forfeit to a confin'd doom.
5The mortal moon hath her eclipse endur'd,
6And the sad augurs mock their own presage;
7Incertainties now crown them-selves assur'd,
8And peace proclaims olives of endless age.
9Now with the drops of this most balmy time
10My love looks fresh, and death to me subscribes
11Since spite of him I'll live in this poor rhyme
12While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes,
13    And thou in this shalt find thy monument
14    When tyrant's crests and tombs of brass are spent.

Notes

1] the prophetic soul] "The concept of the world's prophetic soul is from Giordano Bruno. The meaning of the passage is simply: the prognostications of disaster in the world about me" (F. D. Hoeniger, RP, I [1962]: 393). Back to Line
3] lease] period, term. William Herbert suffered brief imprisonment, and then exile, in 1601 for making Mary Fitton pregnant. Back to Line
4] "Which I have thought doomed to early forfeiture" (Tucker Brooke). Back to Line
5] mortal moon] Elizabeth I, whose grand climacteric or especially dangerous 63rd year, began September 7, 1596, and who died March 24, 1603. Back to Line
6] augurs] prophets. presage] prediction. Back to Line
8] olives] evergreen trees associated with honour, possibly alluding to the coronation of James I in July 1603. Back to Line
9] balmy] soothing, fragrant. Back to Line
10] subscribes] yields, gives in (OED, "subscribe," v., 8). Back to Line
12] insults] scornfully triumphs. Back to Line
14] spent] consumed. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
ababcdcdefefgg
Form
sonnet