Sonnet 116

This poem is primarily written in iambic pentameter, with some variations in key lines. Iambic pentameter is a line of ten syllables consisting of five beats, each with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. This is an English, or Shakespearean, sonnet. The contrast between the Italian and English sonnet form is in the rhyme scheme and the location of the turn: the Italian sonnet is made up of an octave (an 8-line stanza) rhyming in an ABBAABBA pattern followed by a sestet (a 6-line stanza) rhyming in a CDCDCD pattern. An English, or Shakespearean, sonnet, contains three quatrains (4-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of: ABABCDCDEFEFGG.

Reflecting the poem’s unconventionality, the poem contains several moments that are not written in iambic pentameter, with these irregularities adding an element of surprise and preventing the rhythm of the poem from becoming rote or predictable. In the first line, the choice to stray from the typical meter is an attention-grabbing technique. The use of an emphatic spondee (two stressed syllables) in the first beat (“Let me”, Line 1) sets the