Sonnet 132

Structure

Sonnet 132 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 3rd line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

× / × / × / × / × / Have put on black and loving mourners be, (132.3)

/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.

Line 13 features a mid-line reversal and, potentially, an initial reversal:

/ × × / / × × / × / Then will I swear beauty herself is black, (132.13)

Lines 2, 4, and 6 also exhibit initial reversals. Line 6 may be scanned as exhibiting a mid-line reversal; such a reversal is normally preceded by at least a slight intonational break, which "grey cheeks" does not allow. Peter Groves calls this a "harsh mapping", and recommends that in performance "the best thing to do is to prolong the subordinated S-syllable [here, "grey"] ... the effect of this is to throw a degree of emphasis on it".

Some rhythmic uncertainty at the beginning of lines 7 and 9 may be resolved by applying contrastive accent to line 7's "that" and line 9's "those", rendering both lines regular and foregrounding a characteristically Shakespearean antithetical construction.

The meter demands that line 1's "pitying" function as two syllables. Regarding lines 5 and 7's rhymes "heaven" and "even", Booth regards them as monosyllabic, whereas Kerrigan evidently reads them as disyllabic.