Sonnet · War & Remembrance
Sonnet 55: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
1Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
2Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
3But you shall shine more bright in these contents
4Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
5When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
6And broils root out the work of masonry,
7Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn
8The living record of your memory.
9'Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmity
10Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
11Even in the eyes of all posterity
12That wear this world out to the ending doom.
13 So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
14 You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet 55: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-55
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 55: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- War & Remembrance, 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.
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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 55: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments 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 3b93d0d71db215ed…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.