The form of this sonnet is also notable for being a perfect model of the Shakespearean sonnet form. There are two quatrains (groups of four lines), followed by a third quatrain in which the tone of the poem shifts a bit, which is in turn followed by a rhyming couplet (two lines) that wraps the poem up. There aren’t even any lines that flow over into the next line – every single line is end-stopped. With the exception of a couple relatively strong first syllables (and even these are debatable), there are basically no deviations from the meter.
This is a classic Shakespearean sonnet with fourteen lines in very regular iambic pentameter. A Shakespearean Sonnet in Iambic Pentameter
