RPO -- William Shakespeare : Shakespeare's Sonnets: When I do count the clock that tells the time

William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: When I do count the clock that tells the time
Sonnet 12

1When I do count the clock that tells the time,

2And see the brave day sunk in hid'ous night,

3When I behold the violet past prime,

4And sable curls' or silver'd o'er with white:

5When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,

6Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,

7And summer's green all girded up in sheaves

8Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard:

9Then of thy beauty do I question make

10That thou among the wastes of time must go,

11Since sweets and beauties do them-selves forsake,

12And die as fast as they see others grow,

13 And nothing 'gainst time's scythe can make defence

14 Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence.

previous poem in the collection
Shakespeare's Sonnets: As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st next poem in the collection
Shakespeare's Sonnets: O that you were your self, but love you are

Notes

1] count the clock] by listening to the chiming.

2] brave] splendid. hid'ous] hidious Q.

3] prime] pinnacle of excellence.

4] sable] black (a heraldic colour). curls' or] (paint-blackened) curls made of gold, as on a heraldic shield. or silver'd o'er] Q "or siluer'd ore" is a crux. Editors variously emend to "all silvered o'er", "are silver'd o'er", "o'er-silver'd all", "ensilvered o'er", and "o'er-silvered are". Any of these might be correct, and the general meaning is clear (the beloved's dark hair is whitening with age). I defend the original reading by reading "curls" as a genitive in the belief that interpretation of a crux that does least damage to the original has a correspondingly diminished chance to be wrong.

8] bier] litter for a corpse.

Online text copyright © 2012, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): b3r-b3v.
First publication date: 1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/21

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg

Other poems by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: When I do count the clock that tells the timeSonnet 12

Shakespeare's Sonnets: When I do count the clock that tells the time
Sonnet 12