Sonnet · Love
Sonnet 108: What's in the brain, that ink may character
1What's in the brain, that ink may character,
2Which hath not figur'd to thee my true spirit?
3What's new to speak, what now to register,
4That may express my love, or thy dear merit?
5Nothing, sweet boy; but yet, like prayers divine,
6I must each day say o'er the very same;
7Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine,
8Even as when first I hallow'd thy fair name.
9So that eternal love in love's fresh case,
10Weighs not the dust and injury of age,
11Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place,
12But makes antiquity for aye his page;
13 Finding the first conceit of love there bred,
14 Where time and outward form would show it dead.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet 108: What's in the brain, that ink may character” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-108
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 108: What's in the brain, that ink may character
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Love, Peace, Death & Loss
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
- Lines run 10-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a sonnet, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
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 108: What's in the brain, that ink may character 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 d436de2939aba217…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.