Sonnet 100 explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Time and Mortality

  The poet directly confronts time's destructive power and seeks to overcome it through verse.

• Art and Immortality

  The Muse is called upon to grant the beloved fame that outlasts physical decay.

Characters to notice

• Muse

  The poet addresses the Muse directly, urging her to return and sing of his love.

• Time

  Time is personified as an adversary whose scythe and knife threaten the beloved's beauty.

• Love

  The poet's love is the subject whose fame is to be preserved against time's decay.

Key passages

• “Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?”

  Where have you been, Muse, that you have neglected so long to write about the source of your own power?

  The poet chides his inspiration for abandoning its true subject.

• “Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life; So thou prevent’st his scythe and crooked knife.”

  Grant my beloved renown more quickly than time consumes life; thus you will thwart his scythe and curved blade.

  The poet commands the Muse to outpace time's destruction through immortalizing verse.