1. Those lines that I before have writ do lie,

2. Even those that said I could not love you dearer,

3. Yet then my judgment knew no reason why,

4. My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.

5. But reckoning time, whose million'd accidents

6. Creep in twixt vows, and change decrees of Kings,

7. Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,

8. Divert strong minds to the course of altering things:

9. Alas why fearing of time's tyranny,

10. Might I not then say now I love you best,

11. When I was certain ore in-certainty,

12. Crowning the present, doubting of the rest:

13. Love is a Babe; then might I not say so,

14. To give full growth to that which still doth grow.

Full Growth

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Expressing ever greater dedication and love. Making multiple allusions that reveal the relationship of he and Elizabeth along with that of their child. Alluding to the "marriage with the mention of "accidents" which "crept in 'twixt vows" and to how these affected their child with mention of a "change to the decrees of kings" and played again on this theme with the phrase, "Crowning of the present". Alluding to the child that still "doth grow" with references such as "love is a babe".

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Realizing his love for Elizabeth is stronger than he had ever proclaimed before. He may be laying it on thick but his life and his son's future probably hang in the balance.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

The reckoning time of Line 5 is telling the need for a reckoning (a judgement) it further provides excuses and justifications for Elizabeth. where line 6 refers to their broken vows which quite literally change the decree of future kings.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Here in line 7 "Tan" I believe he is asking Elizabeth to convert the "sacred beauty" as hide is converted to leather by the same process. And line 8 to divert these made up minds another way appealing to her power.

couplet (13-14),

Thus the "give full growth to that which still doth grow". Henry is of course still a growing child and full growth of him requires recognition because that is his truth.

Commentary:

Reflecting on what he has written previously and proclaiming his love and arguing of how it has grown despite his own belief that it could not. And using this growth of love to illustrate that love is like a “babe” who must as well be allowed full growth. This is an argument that would not have near the impact without the “babe” and a point that would be largely lost on a subject who hadn’t even married.This sonnet is a combination of loyalty and love combined with an argument for Henry, which forms a kind of trinity. Oxford uses these trinities several times, probably as a way of providing a near religious justification for the need to recognize Henry.

The “certain o’er incertainty” in line 11 reflects his certainty of Henry’s future which he admits is out of his control. This is an important contrast and to line 7 of sonnet 107 where Oxford speaks of those who are “incertainties” and yet crown themselves assured. The But of quatrain 2 reflects the real circumstance of Henry coming between them and as well reflects that Elizabeth has a ‘reckoning’ i.e. settlement to make which reflects on Oxford's previous connections of Henry in financial metaphors.

While the "Crowning of line 12, and again in line 13 'Babe" not by accidents. Cupid plays the role that Mother Nature and Father Time play in suggestiveness.

Vendler remarks that the couplet of love is a babe refers to the mythology of Cupid. But as the second half of the couplet states that it doth grow and Cupid as far as I am aware does not.

More importantly Vendler points out that “everyone” has remarked that Q2 does not add “message value” to the poem and that “the sense of the poem is entirely complete without Q2 and that we can not explain its presence in terms of logic alone.” She further remarks that “Q2 is one of the quatrains which immensely enlarge the scope of the poems” and “brings in monarchic authority, religious images, and intellectual power”. Effectively again she is pointing out Shakespeare’s hyperbole. However as I’ve stated previously, Shakespeare isn’t engaging in hyperbole, the 2nd quatrain belongs in the poem as proper contextual background for the poet and his subject.

Note:

Perhaps a better reflection on Cupid and his role and the symbolism between he and flower is reflected in Oberon's speech in A Midsummer Night's Dream (II, i)

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took

At a fair vestal throned by the west,

And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;

But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft

Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,

And the imperial votaress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,

And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:

The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid

Will make or man or woman madly dote

Upon the next live creature that it sees.

Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again

Ere the leviathan can swim a league.