# LXVII explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

The poet laments that the young man lives in a corrupt age, where his beauty is exploited by sin and false imitation. Nature, now bankrupt, preserves him as a relic of a bygone era of true beauty.

## Themes in this chapter

### Beauty and Transience

The youth's beauty is a remnant of a purer past, now threatened by a corrupt present.

### Truth and Deception

False painting and shadow are contrasted with the youth's true, living hue.

## Character check-ins

### Youth

The young man whose living beauty is contrasted with false painting and shadow.

### Nature

Personified as bankrupt, preserving the youth as her last treasure.

## Key lines

> Ah! wherefore with infection should he live, And with his presence grace impiety, That sin by him advantage should achieve And lace itself with his society?

Why should he live in a corrupt world, lending his beauty to wickedness, so that sin gains power by associating with him?

_The poet questions why the young man's purity is wasted on a sinful society._

> Why should poor beauty indirectly seek Roses of shadow, since his rose is true?

Why should inferior beauty imitate his real beauty with artificial roses, when his own rose is genuine?

_The poet contrasts the youth's authentic beauty with imitations._

> O, him she stores, to show what wealth she had In days long since, before these last so bad.

Nature preserves him as a display of the riches she once possessed in better times, before this corrupt age.

_The youth is a living relic of a past golden age._

## Links

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