Sonnet 12

When I doe count the clock that tels the time,

And see the brave day sunck in hidious night,

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls all silver'd ore with white:

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,

Which erst from heat did canopie the herd,

And Summers greene all girded up in sheaves

Borne on the beare with white and bristly beard:

Then of thy beauty do I question make

That thou among the wastes of time must goe,

Since sweets and beauties do them-selves forsake,

And die as fast as they see others grow,

And nothing gainst Times sieth can make defence

Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence.

Commentary

Address to a fair young man to encourage him to procreate

Changes to the original text: Line 4, 'or' changed to 'all': comma added at the end of Line 6: Line 14, comma deleted.

In the first quatrain, the poet lists various events: hearing the clock strike and counting the number of times it strikes, seeing day turn into night, looking at the violet past its prime, and at white hairs replacing the dark curls of youth.

In the second quatrain, he continues the list, mentioning seeing trees barren of leaves, and seeing the corn on the waggon (beare) in sheaves.

In the third quatrain, the poet, prompted by these previous thoughts of mortality, thinks about the fair young man and his beauty, and the effects of time on that beauty, concluding that beauty disappears as quickly as other beauties appear.

In the final couplet, the poet states that the only way to make a defence against Time is to 'breed to brave him'. 'Sieth' is 'scythe'.

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