Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet LXII explained
The speaker confesses the sin of self-love that pervades his entire being, yet upon seeing his aged reflection in a mirror, he realizes that his self-praise is actually directed toward the beloved, whose youth and beauty he borrows to adorn
What happens
The speaker confesses the sin of self-love that pervades his entire being, yet upon seeing his aged reflection in a mirror, he realizes that his self-praise is actually directed toward the beloved, whose youth and beauty he borrows to adorn his own declining years.
Themes in this chapter
Self-Love and Narcissism
The speaker confesses the sin of self-love that consumes him, only to redirect it toward the beloved.
Time and Mortality
The mirror reveals the speaker's aged and weathered face, confronting him with the passage of time.
Characters to notice
- William Shakespeare
The speaker who examines his own self-love and aging.
- Youth
Implied as the beloved whose beauty the speaker uses to paint over his own age.
Key passages
“Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye And all my soul and all my every part;”
The vice of narcissism has taken over my entire being, my sight, my spirit, and every aspect of myself.
The speaker acknowledges the all-encompassing nature of his self-love.
“But when my glass shows me myself indeed, Beated and chopp’d with tann’d antiquity, Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;”
Yet when my mirror reveals my true appearance, weathered and lined with age, I interpret my self-love in an entirely opposite way.
The mirror forces the speaker to see his aged self, contradicting his earlier self-admiration.
“'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise, Painting my age with beauty of thy days.”
It is you, my other self, whom I am actually praising when I praise myself, adorning my old age with the beauty of your youth.
The speaker reveals that his self-love is really love for the beloved, whose youth masks his own aging.