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Note that at this point, he sees a dagger and nothing more. The starkness of the line helps to punctuate the subtle change in Macbeth's tone as he tries to puzzle through this vision in the next few lines.

Macbeth now has to make sense of this paradox he plainly sees the dagger, it's right there in front of him, and yet he cannot lay hands upon it. The stresses also highlight the key words in the parallelism (have, not, yet, see, still). The unbroken rhythm of the verse works in conjunction with the end-stops of this line and the line above this is not a throwaway line.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Also, the ending scansion of a feminine ending on top of the end-stop of "Come, let me clutch thee" continues the weak ending tension mirroring Macbeth's doubt about this dagger (and what it may portend). The inversion sandwiches two stresses around the end of a sentence, and is useful in giving a greater emphasis to the beginning of the new thought (in this case, he wants to grasp it to see if it's real). The trochaic inversion in the middle of this line is another verse technique that Shakespeare frequently employs following a caesura. The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. The dagger's appearance can be viewed ambiguously is it an omen that Macbeth should proceed, or is it a final warning of his conscience? Macbeth's dismissal of the dagger later in the speech would suggest that he's trying to make himself believe that it's a good sign, but how would you interpret the appearance of a bloody dagger hovering before your eyes right before you were due to commit murder? - / - / - / / - /. The opening line's feminine ending is a versified reinforcement of Macbeth's uncertainty at suddenly seeing the vision of a spectral dagger. Overview | Readings Page | Home - / - / - / - / - /.