Sonnet XXIX: When, in disgrace with fortune
and men’s eyes
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
1. What is one word that depicts the speaker’s mood or tone in the first four
lines?
2. List four words or phrases found in those lines that support your answer for
the previous question?
3. What is one word that depicts the mood or tone expressed by the speaker in
lines 5-8?
4. List four words or phrases found in those lines that support your answer for
the previous question.
5. What mood is expressed in lines 9-14?
6. List four words or phrases found in those lines that support your answer for
the previous question.
7. What word in line 9 signifies a transition or change in mood?
8. What does the poet mean by his “state”?
9. Giving inanimate things human characteristics is called personification.
What is an example of personification in the third line of the sonnet?
10. Writing no more than four sentences, summarize the sonnet.