“Against my love shall be,” When I have seen Time’s fell hand defaced,” “Since brass, nor stone.”
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Although not intended as a sequence, these three sorrowful sonnets all deal with the passage of time and its effects. There are other sonnets as well on this theme (see my posts on Sonnets 66 and 73), and in some his love or his poetry offer a kind of solace, as in 63 and 65 here, but 64 is simply his heart crying out in sadness. They are among the first 126 sonnets, which are addressed to a “Fair Youth,” a beautiful young man.
These Sonnets are, of course, Shakespearean, or English, Sonnets in format: 14 lines consisting of 3 quatrains (4-line stanzas) and a couplet (2-line stanza), with rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg, written in iambic pentameter (each line consisting of 5 poetic “feet”–pentameter–of two syllables, unstressed and stressed —iamb). Typical of Shakespeare, however, the logic of each poem is in Petrarchan, or Italian Sonnet form, with the subject presented in an octet (the first eight lines) and concluded in a sestet (the last six lines).
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Sonnet 63
Against my love shall be, as I am now,
With Time’s injurious hand crushed and o’erworn;
When hours have drained his blood and filled his brow
With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn
Hath traveled on to age’s steepy night,
And all those beauties whereof now he’s king
Are vanishing, or vanished out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his spring;
For such a time do I now fortify
Against confounding age’s cruel knife,
That he shall never cut from memory
My sweet love’s beauty, though my lover’s life.
His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,
And they shall live, and he in them still green
The beginning octet is one long sentence, with clauses outlining the predictable results of aging. It’s as though it’s an extended breath, an outpouring of the speaker’s sorrow at the harrowing nature of growing old. He begins an oratorical parallelism 1of dependent clauses with against, meaning “in opposition to,” creating a tension of expectation. There follows two adverbial clauses explaining the objects of opposition, beginning with a time element, when. So, in opposition to what will happen (against my love[r] shall be) as his love grows old, he compares the young man to himself (as I am now), apparently an “old” man, whom Time’s wounding (injurious hand) has crushed and worn out. When in time his love’s appearance has grown pallid (drained of blood) and wrinkled; when metaphorically his youthful morning look has devolved into an aged night one; when the beauties of which he is now king fade (vanishing) robbing (stealing) him of his wealth (treasure) of freshness (spring)… This sorrowful litany of the consequences of aging ends in line eight.
In the concluding sestet, the speaker now asserts what he will do to oppose (fortify against) these effects, as well as time’s (age’s) cruel ability to excise (knife) the memory of his love’s beauty and being (life). In opposition to all the physical deterioration, the speaker posits the eternal words (they shall live) of his poetry (these black lines). Thus his lover’s beauty shall…be seen forever (still) new (green), defeating time. defeating time. Poetry as elixir.
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Sonnet 64
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see downrazed
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay,
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate:
ThatTtime will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
Sonnet 64 is one of Shakespeare’s most introspective, and saddest, sonnets. Often when the content of a sonnet is negative the resolution is hopeful in some degree, from fingers crossed (This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,/To love that well which thou must leave ere long. see Post That time of year) to ecstatic (For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings/That then I scorn to change my state with kings . See Post When, in disgrace). There is no hope here, just powerful poetry.
In the octet, once gain Shakespeare uses parallelism , the repetition of the when clauses intensifying the meaning. The viewpoint is personal (When I have seen). The second when clause establishes the tone of the poem with severely negative connotations from the words fell (cruel), defaced, outworn buried age). There follows a series of negative observations of the effects of time: buried ruins (outworn ), symbolic of man’s extravagance (rich…cost) and pride ; toppled (downrazed) lofty towers; and strong brass constructs subject to (eternal slave) man’s angry use (mortal rage); erosion of the ocean’s ironic “kingdom’s” shoreline (hungry ocean gain advantage); and, conversely, the intrusion (the firm soil win) of land into the ocean (watery main); all in a futile, ultimately meaningless gain(store)/loss, loss/gain cycle. Everything runs down in time.
The sestet begins with a third when clause, in this instance the the constant reversal of fortune (interchange) of empires (state; though state may also mean, “man’s state”); or all states’ ultimate decay altogether. The speaker’s observations (taught me) of all this collapse and destruction (ruin) has caused him sorrowfully to reflect (rumination) that his lover (love) also will be consumed (take[n] away) by time. This death-like thought of loss (that which it fears to lose) results in the only (cannot choose but) possible reaction: lamentation (weep).
A cry from the heart.
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Sonnet 65
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
But sad mortality o’ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out
Against the wrackful siege of batt’ring days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O, fearful meditation! Where, alack,
Shall Time’s best jewel from Time’s chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
The third poem in our group, Sonnet 65, in its octet shifts from Time as a slowly deteriorating agent, to Time as a forceful power, ruining everything in its path. In this instance, the parallelism is in the form of four rhetorical questions, asking how Time’s tempest can be endured. In the following questions, the speaker asks how beauty, as fragile and powerless as a flower (no stronger than), can hope to appeal (hold a plea) to raging Time’s buffeting when such powerful entities as brass, stone, earth, and boundless sea are overcome (o’ersways) by it. (mortality). How can the sweet (honey) soft breezes (breath) of summer stand up against (hold out) the destructive (wrackful) attack (siege) of days of batt’ring winds when impregnable rocks and gates of steel are not strong enough (stout, strong) and decay. O, frearful meditaton! (all these frightening thoughts), where can Time’s best jewel (beauty) be hidden from Time’s coffin (chest)–an ironic metaphor of a treasure chest. What mortal power (strong hand) can impede Time’s swift advance (hold his swift foot back) [note the galloping single-syllable meter of “.Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,”]. And who can forbid his corruption (spoil) of beauty.
These rhetorical questions are finally answered with one blunt, helpless word: none. The speaker has to admit that we are completely powerless against the ravaging forces of time.
Unless.
But, struggling to find some consolation–as can be typical of Shakespeare in a sonnet’s final rhyming couplet–unless this poem (this), in its black ink, might bring a kind of immortality (miracle), so that his love’s shining brightness might never be dimmed. Poetry as elixir.
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- using the same grammatical structure ↩︎
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(Note: You can view most poems on the website, Poetry Foundation.)
(Note: My Poetry Recordings Playlist: At the very bottom of the post Is a recording. To view my entire playlist of poetry recordings, hover over “1/18” in the upper right corner, then click on ‘My Poetry Recordings Playlist:´and make selection.)
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