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. Sonnet 65 . (original language, but moderately updated) 01. Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, 02. But sad mortality o'er-sways their power, 03. How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, 04. Whose action is no stronger than a flower? 05. O how shall summer's honey breath hold out, 06. Against the wrackful siege of battering days, 07. When rocks impregnable are not so stout, 08. Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays? 09. O fearful meditation, where alack, 10. Shall time's best Jewel from time's chest lie hid? 11. Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back, 12. Or who his spoil or beauty can forbid? 13. O none, unless this miracle have might, 14. That in black ink my love may still shine bright. |
. Sonnet 65 . (paraphrased) 01. Because brass, and stone, and earth, and even the boundless sea, 02. Are subject to being overcome by time, and are transient, 03. How can beauty have a chance, against violent destruction, 04. When beauty's force is no stronger than a flower? 05. Oh, how shall summer's flowery life hold out, 06. Against the torturous attack of time, where each day is like a blow from a battering ram, 07. When stone walls that can resist any human army are not sturdy enough, 08. Nor are gates of steel strong enough, to resist the decay of time? 09. Oh, it's a fearful thing to contemplate - so where, alas, 10. Shall the best Jewel that belongs to time be hidden, so that it won't go back into time's treasure chest? 11. Or, what hand is strong enough to stop the swift march of time, 12. Or, who can order time not to take his treasure or his beauty? 13. Oh, nobody can, unless this miracle of writing has the power, 14. So that in lines written in black ink, the one I love can always shine brightly, somehow, in the world. |
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Sonnet 65 Gloss
L2: mortality = transience; perishability. L2: o'er-sways = overrules; overcomes. L3: rage = violent force. L4: action = force; power. L5: honey breath = smell of flowers. (Note, to the right.) L6: wrackful = torturous. L6: siege = attack. L6: battering days - As though each day is like another blow from a battering ram. L7: rocks = stone walls. The idea presented in line 7 is that stone walls which are impregnable to any human army will nevertheless be destroyed by time. L9: meditation = contemplation. L10: Jewel - Capitalized in the original because it refers to a person. The addressee is cast as "time's best Jewel." L10: chest = treasure chest. (Note, to the right.) L11: foot = march. The swift foot of time is the swift march of time. A synecdoche. L12: spoil or beauty - Is correct as originally printed. (Note, to the right.) If you see a copy of Sonnet 65 without that exact phrase, it is wrong, and it is not Shakespeare. L13: miracle - Of writing. |
Sonnet 65 Notes
The idea of shining bright suggests "sun/son" again, as earlier. Sonnet 65 is probably a contemplation by Shakespeare of how he could best insure that some reference, of some kind, to his son, would endure. That makes it appear Sonnet 65 was written before # 55, and one would suppose within a year of Hamnet's death. Sonnet 65 is then most likely from late 1596, or 1597. ------- L5: honey breath = smell of flowers. It's the idea that the breath of flowers smells like honey, poetically speaking. Flowers have "honey breath." Since breath is "life," the phrase can also be understood as "flowery life." L10: chest = treasure chest. The idea in line 10 is essentially that Time, personified, has a treasure chest: Time occasionally takes a jewel from the treasure chest, and places it in the world for people to enjoy; but then, Time eventually takes the jewel back, and stows it away in the treasure chest again, where people can no longer see it. It's analogy to a person being born into the world, but then dying, as time goes by. The Poet asks the question of how a Jewel can be hidden from Time, to keep it in the world, so Time won't find it and take it back. L12: spoil or beauty - Is correct as originally printed. If you see a copy of Sonnet 65 without that exact phrase, it is wrong, and it is not Shakespeare. Line 12 is written with an intentional ambiguity. The word "his" can be read either as reference to a person, or to time. (Additionally, "or" puns with "o'er," giving the idea of time's "ruin over beauty.") First, taking "his" as reference to a person - "spoil" means the accumulated wealth a person has "plundered" (figuratively speaking) during his life, and the word "beauty" means the person's own beauty. "Forbid" refers to the notion of forbidding time to take away the aforementioned. Second, taking "his" as a reference to time - "spoil" means "ruin," and "forbid" again refers to trying to stop time. "Beauty" in this case, however, means the beauty that arises naturally with time, as if a person would want to forbid that. The phrase "or beauty" becomes a parenthetical. That is, "what man can forbid time's ruin (or time's beauty?)" There's a way in which the Poet's writing can be viewed as a product of time. That concept was raised in Sonnet 16: "... this (Time's pencil...)" So the idea, of man being unable to forbid Time's beauty, relates to the hope of man being unable to "forbid" (stop) the spread of a beautiful sonnet, for one thing. This connects to the hope expressed in line 14 that the Poet's writing will endure. |
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