Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet CXXVI explained
The poet addresses the young man, acknowledging his power over time yet warning that Nature, though she may delay, must ultimately render him back to time's reckoning.
What happens
The poet addresses the young man, acknowledging his power over time yet warning that Nature, though she may delay, must ultimately render him back to time's reckoning.
Themes in this chapter
Time and Mortality
The poem directly engages with Time's power and the inevitability of its reckoning.
Beauty and Transience
The young man's beauty is held in tension with Nature's eventual surrender to time.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time’s fickle glass, his sickle, hour”
You, my beautiful young man, who control Time's unreliable hourglass and his scythe.
The youth is depicted as having mastery over time itself.
“Her audit, though delay’d, answer’d must be, And her quietus is to render thee.”
Nature's account, though postponed, must eventually be settled, and her final payment is to give you up.
The inevitability of death and time's claim is emphasized.