Theme:      Time versus Nature
Content:    A 12-line poem with a non-Shakespearean aabbccddeeff rhyme sequence. The rhyme scheme is a fitting end signifying the end of the relationship with the Young Man.

• Mid-line rhyme with fickle and sickle extends to Q2 by way of pluck and back.
• sickle also anagrammatically anticipates skill in Q2.
• her, embedded in therein and withering, plus the occurrences of er, anticipate the flood of instances of her in Q3, the most frequently occurring word in the poem.
• In addition, there is a preponderance of occurrences of re perhaps suggesting the regenerative power of Nature as well as perhaps representing a direct opposing force to the er/her occurrences that represent Nature.
• Time explicitly referred to in hour.
• An anagram of Henri South is contained in "therein show'st". The Quarto spelling is "therein shou'st", the only time "shou'st" is used in the sonnets and the only time a "u" is used instead of a "w" to achieve the "South" anagram.
  
• An anagram of Henri Wriothesly and South is contained in "Thy louers withering" (Quarto spelling).
• The poet may be cryptically pointing the reader to these anagrams via "therein show'st" meaning the person's name is "shown therein".
• These two anagrams identify Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton.
  

• Mid-line rhyme with still and will and on to skill and kill.
• Possible anagrammatic reference to Southampton via As thou
• Typical Shakespearean explanation of the predicament by claiming that nature is using the ageing of the subject to disgrace and ultimately kill time / minutes.
• The author's first name appears to be being referenced here via will.
• The author's surname appears to be being referenced in the next line via a semi-palindromic anagram: "She keeps" = Shekspee.
• The author's surname again appears to be being referenced in this line via "SHE Keeps thee to thiS PURpose: that her skill".
• The author appears to have positioned his own name via "Will Shekspur" at the very heart of this final sonnet of the 1-126 series.
  

• Repeat of the opening O thou.
• Possible reference to Hero (Venus's priestess) via her, O.
• Possible reference to the rot of death via her, O thou
• Repeat of Q2's still.
• Time's minutes reduce the subject to a mere minion.
• Time inevitably vanquishes Nature who must render her subject although Time, present in Q1 & Q2, is explicitly absent from Q3.
• The last couplet competently resolves the sonnet both in structure and content. It is difficult to imagine what a further couplet could add to the poem having resolved to Nature inevitably giving up the subject that she created in Sonnet 20 to Time. This suggests that the poem is printed in full as Shakespeare wrote it.
• The two main characters of sonnets 1-126, the author and the Young Man, are present in this sonnet, as are the two abstract forces that drive 1-126, Time and Nature.
  

• There is good reason to believe that these parentheses were deliberately included by Shakespeare to symbolise the nothingness that is left after Time has devoured us. What is striking about this sonnet, like so many others, is that it is bereft of any conventional religious overtones. There are no angels, heaven, salvation, resurrection, after-life, meeting with your maker in Shakespeare's most candid reflections on what happens to us after death. Just nothingness.

This sonnet brings all the main characters of the 1-126 series together at the finale (original Quarto spelling):

O Thou my lovely Boy, who in thy power                                    lovely Boy

Doest hould times fickle glasse,his sickle,hower:                          Time
Who hast by wayning growne, and therein shou'st,                       Henri South
Thy louers withering, as thy sweet selfe grow'st.                           Henri Wriothesly
If Nature(soueraine misteres ouer wrack)                                    Nature
As thou goest onwards still will plucke thee backe,                      Will
She keepes thee to this purpose,that her skill.                              Shekspur
May time disgrace, and wretched mynuit kill.                               Time
Yet feare her O thou minnion of her pleasure,                              Nature (her)
She may detaine,but not still keepe her tresure.                            Nature (her)
  Her Audit(though delayd)answer'd must be,                              Nature (her)
  And her Quietus is to render thee.                                             Nature (her)