Sonnet 69

's Sonnet 69, like many of those nearby in the sequence, expresses extremes of feelings about the beloved subject, who is presented as at once superlative in every way and treacherous or disloyal.

Paraphrase

What the world can see of you is perfect; no one denies you that name of perfection. Everyone admits this without hesitation or limitation. But the same people who so readily praise your beauty reverse that praise when they examine you in other ways. These people, judging your mind and character by your actions, decide that you are as much foul as beautiful. And the reason that your odor does not match your appearance is you have become common

Structure

Sonnet 69 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 fifth line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:


 × / × / × / × / × / 
Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd;

The twelfth line is open to several alternative scansions. It may exhibit two instances of the rightward movement of an ictus :


 × × / / × × / / × / 
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:

Alternatively, the line could be scanned with one minor ionic followed by a mid-line reversal :


 × × / / / × × / × / 
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:

Finally, the first four syllables could be scanned with a regular iambic alternation — followed by either of the above-mentioned placements of the third ictus.