XII explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Time and Mortality

  The poem contrasts the vigor of youth with the decay of age, highlighting the relentless passage of time.

• Beauty and Transience

  Youth is depicted as beautiful and fleeting, while age represents the loss of that beauty.

Characters to notice

• Youth

  Personified as full of pleasance, summer morn, sport, nimble, hot and bold, wild, and adored by the speaker.

• Age

  Personified as crabbed, full of care, winter weather, bare, short of breath, lame, weak and cold, tame, and abhorred by the speaker.

• Love

  Referred to as 'my love' who is young, and the speaker longs for their arrival.

Key passages

• “Crabbed age and youth cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.”

  Old age and youth are incompatible: youth is joyful, age is worried; youth is like a summer morning, age like winter; youth is splendid like summer, age is barren like winter.

  The speaker establishes the fundamental opposition between youth and age.

• “Youth is full of sport, age’s breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and age is tame.”

  Youth is playful and energetic, age is breathless and slow; youth is agile, age is crippled; youth is passionate and daring, age is feeble and chilly; youth is untamed, age is subdued.

  The speaker enumerates the contrasting qualities of youth and age.

• “Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee; O, my love, my love is young! Age, I do defy thee: O, sweet shepherd, hie thee, For methinks thou stay’st too long.”

  I hate old age and love youth; my beloved is young! I reject old age: hurry, sweet shepherd, because you seem to be taking too long.

  The speaker directly addresses age and youth, expressing strong emotions and impatience for the young lover's arrival.