Theme: Time
Content: Following on from 116 where the author says that true love (which is unattainable) never changes, the author here claims that time doesn't change him (which is also unattainable).
- The whole of this sonnet is packed with words that contain the letter T echoing persistent Time.
- There are also several examples of words that phonetically resemble time, such as Thy and that I, plus words that visually resemble time, such as To me, plus words that are phonetically the reverse of time, such as might.
- The preponderance of t words representing time are countered by a significant number of words that contain the defiant no: No...not...nothing novel, nothing...Not...nor.
- Thou employed to address the enemy Time, rather than you, for assonance.
Our dates
are brief, and therefore
we admire
What thou
dost foist
upon us
that
is old,
And rather
make them born
to
our
desire
Than think
that
we before have heard them
told.
- No unique reference to the author in this quatrain unlike all other quatrains and the couplet which assert the author's ego with I.
- Time is not explicitly present in this quatrain but "hour" is phonetically represented in the 2 instances of Our, particularly as the first is adjacent to "dates".
Thy registers
and thee I
both defy,
Not wond'ring at
the present
nor the past;
For thy
records and what
we see doth lie,
Made more or less by thy
continual haste.
This I
do vow, and this
shall ever be:
I will be true despite
thy
scythe and thee.
- In Q1, Time boasted that the author changes: I do change. Here the author asserts himself with I do vow...I will be true.
- Possible pun on the author's name in I will, especially as the will is on a stressed syllable.
- Time's records in Q3 lie whilst the author is true.
Critical text © NigelDavies.home@Virgin.net