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. Sonnet 77 . (original language, but moderately updated) 01. Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties were, 02. Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste, 03. The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear, 04. And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste. 05. The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show, 06. Of mouthed graves will give thee memory, 07. Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know, 08. Time's thievish progress to eternity. 09. Look what thy memory can not contain, 10. Commit to these waste blacks, and thou shalt find 11. Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain, 12. To take a new acquaintance of thy mind. 13. These offices, so oft as thou wilt look, 14. Shall profit thee, and much enrich thy book. |
. Sonnet 77 . (paraphrased) 01. Your mirror will, someday, show you how your beautiful features used to be, 02. (And) Your sundial will show how your precious minutes go by; 03. The blank pages will hold your mind's impressions, as you write, 04. And using this book, after you've written down your thoughts, you can look back and sample what you've learned. 05. The wrinkles which your mirror will, someday, plainly show you, 06. Will give you a reminder of graves, open and waiting to be "fed," 07. And by the steady progress of the sundial's shadow you can see 08. That time is stealing forward towards eternity. 09. Attend to it, that what your memory can't contain, 10. You write on the empty pages, so far unilluminated by thoughts, and later you will find 11. Those literary creations have been held, just as they were conveyed from your brain to the printed page, 12. And you can newly acquaint yourself with your own ideas. 13. These tasks, of noting your ideas, as often as you look back at what you've written, 14. Will be to your profit, and make the value of your book much greater. |
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Sonnet 77 Gloss
L1: were - (Note, to the right.) L2: dial = sundial. L2: waste = pass away; go by. Not necessarily implying the addressee is wasting his time. L3: leaves = pages. L4: of = from. L4: book - Apparently an actual book, with at least some of the pages blank, perhaps for use as a diary or memorandum book. L4: learning = that you've learned. L4: taste = experience again; sample anew. L5: wrinkles - Of the skin. L6: mouthed graves - The poetic concept is that deep wrinkles of the skin, that appear with age, are like "open graves" where the beauty of youth is buried. L6: memory = a reminder. L7: shady - A sundial works by casting a shadow. L7: stealth = slow and silent movement. L8: thievish - Because time "steals" memories. L9: Look = look to; look upon. There's an intentional ambiguity. L10: Commit - Either 'committed' or 'commit (them) to.' The ambiguity of the phrasing is intentional. The idea of lines 9 and 10 is that the addressee can first look to committing his thoughts to writing, and later, after they're committed to writing, he can look back to see thoughts he's forgotten. L10: waste blacks = empty spaces (pages.) (Note, to the right.) "Blacks" = pages unilluminated by thoughts; 'unenlightened' pages. L11: children = writings; literary creations. L11: nursed - (Note, to the right.) L13: offices = tasks (of writing things down, and then looking at them again, later.) |
Sonnet 77 Notes
It appears the addressee has been given three presents - a mirror, a sundial, and a nice diary or memorandum book - and Sonnet 77 was written to accompany the gifts. It is most likely a patronage Sonnet, commissioned by an aristocratic family. If the family is the Herberts (meaning primarily Mary Sidney,) the addressee is not William, but rather Philip, the younger brother. Such musings can only be conjecture. However, this Sonnet is decidedly too "young" for William Herbert. Philip Herbert would have been 13 in October of 1597, for what that observation is worth. ------- L1: were So printed in the original; based on rhyme and meaning, it is generally guessed to be "wear." However, "were" can be interpreted to give essentially the same concept, and it is certainly possible to speak "were" in a way that rhymes with "bear." There is no overriding reason to suppose "were" is not the intended word. The interpretation of "were" is that as the addressee continually looks into his mirror, over a long period of time, he'll notice changes in his appearance, thus later becoming aware of how his beauties "were." So, "were" goes along, precisely, with the concept of looking back at things the addressee has written in the book mentioned in line 4. This may be an instance where Shakespeare used a subtle word in the Sonnet with the full intent of suggesting an obvious word. L10: waste blacks = empty spaces (pages.) "Blacks" = pages unilluminated by thoughts; 'unenlightened' pages. The word is "blacks" in the original, which is probably correct, especially in connection with "waste." It can be understood that writing is "illumination," so that a page with no writing is "unilluminated," and therefore in "darkness," which is "black," poetically speaking. The idea of "blank" is obviously intended to be understood, but that does not necessarily make "blank" the intended word in the Sonnet. L11: nursed It was a practice of Shakespeare's time, among the upper classes, to hand newborn infants over to the care of nurses, and the mother would then see her child only periodically. The prime example of that in the Shakespeare plays is Juliet's silly nurse in Romeo and Juliet. For the Sonnet, it refers to the addressee "giving birth to his writings" by writing them in the book, then leaving them for a while, and looking back at them later. The book is the "nurse" that holds the writings in the meantime. |
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