Sonnet 153 is a sonnet by William Shakespeare. Synopsis Sonnets 153 and 154 are filled with rather bawdy double entendres of sex followed by contraction of a venereal disease. The sonnet is a story of Cupid, who lays down his torch and falls asleep, only to have it stolen by Diana, who extinguishes it in a "cold valley-fountain". The fountain then acquires an eternal heat as a result, and becomes a hot spring where men still come to be cured of diseases. The speaker then states that as his mistress looks at him, Cupid's torch is ignited again, and Cupid tests the torch by trying it on the speaker's heart. The speaker becomes sick with love and wants to bathe in the hot spring to cure himself, but he cannot. The speaker discovers the only thing that can cure his discomfort is a glance from his mistress. Structure Sonnet 153 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical rhyme scheme of the form ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and is composed in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The 12th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter: × / × / × / × / × / And thither hied, a sad distemper'd guest, (153.12) / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus. The 1st line begins with a common metrical variation, an initial reversal: / × × / × / × / × / Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep: (153.1) Line 9 potentially incorporates an initial reversal, and line 6 has a mid-line reversal. The 3rd line features the rightward movement of the first ictus (resulting in a four-position figure, × × / /, sometimes referred to as a minor ionic): × × / / × / × / × / And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep (153.3) A minor ionic also occurs in line 4. The meter demands that line 10's "trial" be pronounced as two syllables. Analysis Sonnets 153 and 154 are anacreontics, a literary mode dealing with the topics of love, wine, and song, and often associated with youthful hedonism and a sense of carpe diem, in imitation of the Greek poet Anacreon and his epigones. The two anacreontic sonnets are also most likely an homage to