1. Not marble, nor the gilded monument,
2. Of Princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
3. But you shall shine more bright in these contents
4. Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
5. When wasteful war shall Statues overturn,
6. And broils root out the work of masonry,
7. Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn:
8. The living record of your memory.
9. 'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
10. Shall you pace forth, your praise shall still find room,
11. Even in the eyes of all posterity
12. That wear this world out to the ending doom.
13. So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
14. You live in this, and dwell in lover's eyes.
You Live In This
Dedication: To Henry
A verse composed for the purposes of memorializing Henry.
1st Quatrain: (1-4)
An ode to the memory of Henry while not to be embodied in history at least done in this sonnet. Special mention of course made to prince's monuments as that at the least should have been the substitute for this sonnet.
2nd Quatrain: (5-8)
More on his ever living memory.
3rd Quatrain: (9-12)
While possibly hyperbole, it is hopefully clearly the expression of a proud father and likely a reflection of his own immodesty as these sonnets were likely one of the things that would attest to Henry's fabled remembrance.
couplet (13-14),
The reference back to Elizabeth and Oxford with "lover's eyes"
Commentary:
Oxford again addressing a poem to Henry, something not seen I believe since sonnet 69, and also expressing Oxford’s poetry’s immortality to provide a more immortal memorial to the monument that a prince likely Henry would rightfully have. One of the primary clues aside from the reference of Prince’s monuments that this is to Henry is the couplet’s revelation that the subject awaits the “judgment” before (he) will arise, another subtle play on Henry being the sun/son. As well as the shine of line 3. The need to memorialize Henry in this sonnet again should be much better understood as opposed to some anonymous youth. One which that the poet is enamored with for some unknown reason.
While not the first to reference the wider audience for these poems, as was seen previously in 107, one of the most explicit in this regard. A contrast to the poet of the orthodoxy who we are led to believe proclaims his “rival” to have greater powers.
It appears to me at least that Oxford now planned for the contingency of Henry never being recognized but could not bare to see his son not memorialized in some manner. It is my belief that the publishers of these sonnets were acting on that wish by Oxford and probably waited as long as they could before they finally felt secure in publishing the sonnets along with the clues contained in the dedication. And along with their proper meaning hidden in plain sight.
Vendler comments that the chief ingenuity of 55 is bestowing grandeur on entities when they are connected to the beloved, while bestowing squalor on the very same entities when mentioned with ordinary objects. In reality what the poet is really doing is proclaiming a greater time frame for the memory of the subject than mere physical objects can bestow. This is actually a common theme in these sonnets and has been used as an argument to convince Elizabeth to think about longer time frames than mere physical symbolism can memorialize.
The frequent correction of line 1 to pluralize monuments and add end with a comma is quite possibly a deliberate "mistake" that calls to attention Elizabeth's own gilded monument. Likely she might have also been privy to this sonnet.