Not marble nor the gilded monuments (Sonnet 55)
By William Shakespeare

Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
’Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
    So, till the Judgement that yourself arise,
    You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.

That time of year thou mayst in me behold (Sonnet 73)
By William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
    This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
    To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

About the Poem

If you have been a longtime reader of this blog, you may remember that I love sonnets. When I used to teach British literature, my students and I spent a lot of time studying sonnets, their various forms, themes, meter, etc. I was talking to a friend yesterday and brought up Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55 (“Not marble nor the gilded monuments”) to tell him about taking my students to a cemetery to as a way to look at the sonnet’s themes of  time and immortalization. This made me think of other sonnets by Shakespeare, while I knew there was a sonnet about autumn, I had to use the Academy of American Poets’ find a poem feature and search for a poem with an “autumn” theme in a “sonnet” form. Sonnet 73 was the result. This sonnet focuses on three metaphors: Autumn, the passing of a day, and the dying out of a fire. 

Sonnets 55 and 73 are part of a sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets (1-126) that talk about the “Fair Youth,” unnamed young man addressed in these sonnets who is handsome, self-centered, universally admired, and much sought after. The sequence begins with the poet urging the young man to marry and father children (sonnets 1–17). It continues with the friendship developing with the poet’s loving admiration, which at times is homoerotic in nature. Then comes a set of betrayals by the young man, as he is seduced by the Dark Lady, and they maintain a liaison (sonnets 133, 134 & 144), all of which the poet struggles to abide. It concludes with the poet’s own act of betrayal, resulting in his independence from the fair youth (sonnet 152).

“Sonnet 55” is all about the endurance of love, preserved within the words of the sonnet itself. It will outlive material things such as grand palaces, royal buildings and fine, sculptured stone; it will outlive war and time itself, even to judgement day. This is because the poem will always be a “living record”; the memory of love will stay alive within the sonnet, come what may. The effects of time, the destructive forces of war—they count for nothing.

“Sonnet 73 is one of the four sonnets Shakespeare wrote on the subject of time, the aging process and mortality. It’s a thoughtful, reflective sonnet, the voice of a person getting older, aimed at a partner whose love the speaker obviously needs. You can imagine Shakespeare writing this in late autumn (fall) or early winter when the leaves are turning yellow, orange and red, when cold weather makes the bare branches tremble and summer is long gone. The speaker hints that the music has changed along with the season.

About the Poet

William Shakespeare, regarded as the foremost dramatist of his time, wrote more than thirty plays and more than one hundred sonnets, all written in the form of three quatrains and a couplet that is now recognized as Shakespearean.

Health Update

A quick update on my health. I was able to see one of the nurse practitioners at my doctor’s office yesterday. My doctor did not have any available appointments. She believes that I have a stomach or intestinal infection, probably enteritis. She drew blood to be tested in an effort to narrow down what has been causing this pain. When I asked her if I could go back to work, she said “Absolutely not!” She said, “You obviously look like you don’t feel good and that alone is good enough reason not to let you return to work, but I also want to see what these tests show and make sure you are not contagious before I release you to return to work.” She said even if the tests come back fine, it doesn’t mean that I am not sick, it just means that it’s clearing up, and I should be back to normal in a day or so. So, I am home today awaiting the results from the blood tests.