1. Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,

2. So do our minutes hasten to their end,

3. Each changing place with that which goes before,

4. In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

5. Nativity, once in the main of light.

6. Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,

7. Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,

8. And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound.

9. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,

10. And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,

11. Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,

12. And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:

13. And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,

14. Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

His Gift Confounded

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Reminding Elizabeth of both their impending demises, and of the child they sired together with the expectation of a “crowning”. Finishing with the thought that his verse will at least provide the immortality Henry deserves.

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Telling of the changing cycle of life.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Telling the story of Henry from birth confounded by Elizabeth’s omission of Henry’s existence. Line 7 is another reference to both Elizabeth as Moon and her succession referenced by an eclipse of her as the Moon.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Tells of times ravages to Henry in his short life and there being nothing left of him when time runs out

couplet (13-14),

Finishing again with a way of reminding history of Henry's promise never fulfilled

Commentary:

Oxford again reiterating the purpose for his verse, which as he told us in 76 effectively was that it was all the same and all for one purpose. The point of this sonnet to me appears unmistakable as a reminder to Elizabeth of what has transpired in regard to the birth of Henry, his “truth” and purpose being provided for Elizabeth’s benefit and legacy, and the cruel and unnecessary waste that is to come of Henry on Elizabeth’s present course.

The general understanding of this sonnet as general comment on the passing of time completely misses the underlying message and references to the heir growing and waiting to fulfill his purpose.However that this sonnet is generally regarded as one of the finest shows I believe Shakespeare at the very height of his skill and thus should reinforce the arrow of time argument for the sonnet sequence being ordered as they are here.

Line 7 is a reference similar to 107 line 5 referring to Elizabeth as the “mortal Moon” whose eclipse is “endured”, i.e., overcome in this case.

Vendler reads as a commentary on Times’s incessant degradation as some kind of pointless reminder of the poet’s obsession with the advancing age of the young man. She calls the third quatrain “exclamatory and almost cartoonlike”. What’s more she ascribes to Shakespeare an analytical and philosophical model in place of the chronological order of like. Thus the poem’s analytical nature she says, results in “perceiving the undeflectable end even in the flourishing beginning”. And it is the “ensuing philosophical despair” which is manifested in line 12 that “is consequently believably motivated”. This strikes me not only an empty motivation for this poem, particularly Q2 but also all the other allusions so similar to Q2.