The Place 2 Be: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Critique of Sonnet 12

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Theme: Young Man
Content: Encouragement for the subject to breed in the face of relentless time that will age and eventually kill life unless those who can create new life do so.

When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

“When I see how time passes and another day ends with the black of night.”

Emphasis on time explicitly and via clock as the omnipresent and irrepressible force that the subject must be conscious of.

The state of being brave is assigned to the life-giving day.

But brave day is sunk by time, emphasising time's destruction.

The author opens with counting the clock that tells the time, the clock of course having 12 numbers, the day having 12 hours before "hideous night" arrives, and this suitably being the 12th. sonnet.

When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls ensilvered o'er with white;

“When I see the perishing flower.”

Counterpoint between the black of night and the aged white.

Correlation again between the subject and a beautiful, but perishable, flower.

The beautiful violet is past prime and the sable curls are ensilvered o'er with white again by time.

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,

“When I see trees in Autumn which used to protect the herd from the heat of the sun.”

Excellent analogy of the tree in summer protecting the herd as a father in his prime would protect his offspring.

The trees are barren of leaves, again due to time.

And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard:

“When I see flowers now dead used to decorate funeral carriages as a symbol of death.”

Pun on borne as in “born” with the use of the flowers at a funeral.

In the Quarto, bier is spelled "beare", a further pun on “born”, and also a link into the aged beard.

And summer's green is girded up in sheaves, again due to time.

Then of thy beauty do I question make
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow;

“Then I think of your beauty that will eventually perish as quickly as others will grow.”

Time again emphasised as the harbinger of death and the subject's enemy.

Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake is the essence of this sonnet which lists a variety of beautiful aspects of nature that eventually perish at the hands of time just like the subject will.

And nothing 'gainst time's scythe can make defence
Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence.

“No-one can stop death, except those that create life in others before they die themselves.”

Time concluded as the conquesting enemy of the subject against whom he can fight by having children.

Brave, linked to life-giving day in line 2, is now linked to the life-giving subject.