Sonnet 86

Sonnet 86
Detail of old-spelling text
The first eleven lines of Sonnet 86 in the 1609 Quarto

Q1



Q2



Q3



C

Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
Bound for the prize of all-too-precious you,
That did my ripe thoughts in my brain in-hearse,
Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?
Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
No, neither he, nor his compeers by night,
Giving him aid, my verse astonished.
He, nor that affable familiar ghost
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
As victors, of my silence cannot boast;
I was not sick of any fear from thence.
But when your countenance filled up his line,
Then lacked I matter, that enfeebled mine.




4



8



12

14

—William Shakespeare[1]

Sonnet 86 is one of 154 sonnets first published by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare in the Quarto of 1609. It is the final poem of the Rival Poet group of the Fair Youth sonnets in which Shakespeare writes about an unnamed young man and a rival poet competing for the youth's favor. Though the exact date of its composition is unknown, it has been suggested that the Rival Poet series may have been written between 1598 and 1600.[2]

Sonnet 86 has attracted attention because it seems to offer clues to the identity of the Rival Poet.

  1. ^ Shakespeare, William. Duncan-Jones, Katherine. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Bloomsbury Arden 2010. p. 283 ISBN 9781408017975.
  2. ^ Jackson, Macd. P. (April 2005). "Francis Meres and the Cultural Contexts of Shakespeare's Rival Poet Sonnets". Review of English Studies. 56 (224): 2. doi:10.1093/res/hgi050.