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Sonnet · Love

Sonnet 105: Let not my love be call'd idolatry

by William Shakespeare

1Let not my love be call'd idolatry,

2Nor my beloved as an idol show,

3Since all alike my songs and praises be

4To one, of one, still such, and ever so.

5Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,

6Still constant in a wondrous excellence;

7Therefore my verse to constancy confin'd,

8One thing expressing, leaves out difference.

9'Fair, kind, and true,' is all my argument,

10'Fair, kind, and true,' varying to other words;

11And in this change is my invention spent,

12Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.

13 Fair, kind, and true, have often liv'd alone,

14 Which three till now, never kept seat in one.

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Quick facts

Poem
Sonnet 105: Let not my love be call'd idolatry
Poet
William Shakespeare
Length
14 lines
Form
Sonnet
Themes
Love, Nature

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
14 lines · one 14-line stanza
Line length
Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
William Shakespeare1564–1616
Source record
PoetryDBSonnet 105: Let not my love be call'd idolatry by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 4fec34530469a18c
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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