Summary The youth’s aging face will be reflected in a mirror, and the passage of time will be reflected on his watch, clashing with the youth’s eternally young thoughts. As the young man ages, each wrinkle on his face will remind him of a memory from his youth. However, because […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 77Summary and Analysis Sonnet 76
Summary Complaining that his verse is sadly limited, the poet acknowledges that his praise of the young man allows no new form of argument. As a traditionalist, the poet rejects innovation for innovation’s sake. Failing to keep abreast of modern inventions, he watches other poets experiment with new and exciting […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 76Summary and Analysis Sonnet 75
Summary The poet is torn by contrary feelings that he cannot reconcile. His relationship with the youth alternates between pleasure — “Sometime all full with feasting on your sight” — and uneasiness — “And by and by clean starved for a look.” Nor does he know whether to be alone […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 75Summary and Analysis Sonnet 74
Summary The poet continues his obsessive concern with his own death. Although he emphasizes his own inadequacy as a person, he boldly asserts the greatness of his verse: “My life hath in this line some interest, / Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.” He claims that his better […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 74Summary and Analysis Sonnet 73
Summary The poet indicates his feeling that he has not long to live through the imagery of the wintry bough, twilight’s afterglow, and a fire’s dying embers. All the images in this sonnet suggest impending death. In the first quatrain, the poet compares himself to autumn leaves, but he is […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 73Summary and Analysis Sonnet 72
Summary Sonnet 72 echoes the mood of Sonnet 71, and the poet tells the youth not to praise his verse after the poet’s death, as his praise could not add to the merit of the poems and may bring ridicule to the youth. The poet’s self-denial displays a sense of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 72Summary and Analysis Sonnet 71
Summary In this and the next three sonnets, the poet’s mood becomes increasingly morbid. Here he anticipates his own death: “No longer mourn for me when I am dead / . . . / From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell.” The elegiac mood expresses a sense of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 71Summary and Analysis Sonnet 70
Summary The poet is unable to maintain his disapproval of the young man, but he forgives without forgetting. The youth can blame only himself for the slanderous rumors about him. The poet notes that the slander pays an oblique and unintended tribute to the youth’s innocence, charm, and beauty: “For […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 70Summary and Analysis Sonnet 69
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 68