Summary Although the youth’s enemies praise his appearance, they all but slander him in their private meetings. Contrasting the youth’s outward beauty — “Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view” — to his deeds, the poet, in a rare display of independence, criticizes his young friend. His […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 69Summary and Analysis Sonnet 68
Summary Because the young man epitomizes ancient standards of true beauty, he does not need cosmetics or a wig made from “the golden tresses of the dead.” In these sonnets, the poet exhibits a general tendency to censure poetic extravagance and to identify such lavishness with the youth’s false friends, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 68Summary and Analysis Sonnet 67
Summary Sonnet 67 continues the thought of the previous sonnet, and develops a new argument in its reflection upon the poet’s contemporary age. Although the poet still professes faith in the youth’s natural endowments, he is put out of sorts by the public rage for artificial beauty in life and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 67Summary and Analysis Sonnet 66
Summary Were it not that dying would take him from his love, the angry speaker of this litany of life’s disappointments would die. Everywhere he sees the undeserving win public esteem — “And gilded honor shamefully misplaced” — while the virtuous and needy are neglected, or even worse, disgraced. However, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 66Summary and Analysis Sonnet 65
Summary Continuing many of the images from Sonnet 64, the poet concludes that nothing withstands time’s ravages. The hardest metals and stones, the vast earth and sea — all submit to time “Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, / But sad mortality o’er-sways their power.” “O fearful […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 65Summary and Analysis Sonnet 64
Summary In Sonnet 64, the poet is portrayed as a historian, philosopher, and antiquarian who dreams of time’s relentless destruction of ancient glories. Monuments that reflect the noblest ideas of humankind — castles, churches, and cities — will one day be “confounded to decay.” Sonnet 64 is remarkably similar to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 64Summary and Analysis Sonnet 63
Summary References to the young man’s future are signs of the poet’s fear that love cannot defend against time. The youth could die — “When hours have drained his blood” — and so could his beauty — “And all those beauties whereof now he’s king / Are vanishing, or vanished […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 63Summary and Analysis Sonnet 62
Summary The poet thinks of himself as a young man and condemns his own narcissistic vanity. Unfortunately, although he can intellectualize narcissism as an unworthy attribute, nonetheless “It is so grounded inward in my heart.” This youthful image of himself is abruptly shattered in lines 9 through 12, beginning with […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 62Summary and Analysis Sonnet 61
Summary The youth continues to present a variety of phantom images to the poet. Trying to settle on one authentic image, the poet cannot sleep because of the emotional turmoil caused by his obsession with the youth. Shapes and visions of the youth are the disembodied “shadows like to thee” […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 61Summary and Analysis Sonnet 60
Summary Sonnet 60 is acknowledged as one of Shakespeare’s greatest because it deals with the universal concerns of time and its passing. In the sonnet, time is symbolized by concrete images. For example, the opening two lines present a simile in which time is represented by “waves” and “minutes”: “Like […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 60