Theme:      Age
Content:    Analogy of the subject's life-story being a notepad which is being given as a gift by the author to the subject.

Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste,

• "Your mirror will show that beauty diminishes with time, and your clock shows how time marches on."
• This is a th sonnet, opening strongly with use of thy and utilising it extensively throughout the rest of the sonnet: thy…thee…thy…thy.

The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning mayst thou taste:

• "The empty leaves of pages in the book of your life are able to be filled with your thoughts."
• Possible pun on the word bear: the pages of the book bearing the subject's thoughts on child-bearing, a subject exhaustively discussed in Sonnets 1-17.
• th alliteration continues: the…thy…this…this…thou.
• Line 4 seems to suggest that this sonnet is included in a book of blank pages given to the subject.

The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory;
Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know
Time's thievish progress to eternity;

• "Your wrinkles will remind you of graves, in appearance and that they represent age, as time marches on."
• Extraordinary simile of wrinkles as gaping graves.
• th alliteration continues, and gets progressively more clever: The…thy…mouthed…thee…thou…thy…stealth…thievish

Look what thy memory cannot contain
Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.

• Fill these pages with your thoughts that can not all be remembered."
• th alliteration continues: thy…these…thou…Those…thy…thy
• Line 10 seems to again suggest that the author has given this sonnet to the subject as part of a book of blank pages.

These offices so oft as thou wilt look
Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.

• "Recording your thoughts will enrich your life and make your life’s story book complete."
• th alliteration concludes: These…thou…thee…thy.
• offices...oft...profit provide alternative alliteration and, augmented with f, ch, s words, conclude the very soft tone of the sonnet.