# Sonnet LXII explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by William Shakespeare.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se/chapters/lxii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se/chapters