Sonnet · Love
Sonnet 153: Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
1Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep:
2A maid of Dian's this advantage found,
3And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
4In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;
5Which borrow'd from this holy fire of Love,
6A dateless lively heat, still to endure,
7And grew a seeting bath, which yet men prove
8Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.
9But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired,
10The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
11I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
12And thither hied, a sad distemper'd guest,
13 But found no cure, the bath for my help lies
14 Where Cupid got new fire; my mistress' eyes.
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“Sonnet 153: Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-153
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 153: Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Love, Peace
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.
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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 153: Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep 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 4f3143a5bf81766c…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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