Sonnet 123

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Sonnet 123 in the 1609 Quarto
Q1 Q2 Q3 C No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Thy pyramids built up with newer might To me are nothing novel, nothing strange; They are but dressings of a former sight. Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire What thou dost foist upon us that is old; And rather make them born to our desire Than think that we before have heard them told. Thy registers and thee I both defy, Not wondering at the present nor the past, For thy records and what we see doth lie, Made more or less by thy continual haste. This I do vow, and this shall ever be, I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee. 4 8 12 14 —William Shakespeare

Sonnet 123is one of154 sonnetswritten by the English playwright and poetWilliam Shakespeare.It is a member of theFair Youthsequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.

Structure

Sonnet 123 is an English or Shakespeareansonnet.The English sonnet has threequatrains,followed by a final rhymingcouplet.It follows the typicalrhyme schemeof the form ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and is composed iniambic pentameter,a type of poeticmetrebased on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The 3rd line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

× / × / × / × / × /
To me are nothing novel, nothing strange; (123.3)

/ =ictus,a metrically strong syllabic position. × =nonictus.

Although every line may bescannedregularly, some lines may be otherwise construed, such as line 13 which can be read with an initial reversal:

/ × × / × / × / × /
This I do vow, and this shall ever be, (123.13)

The meter demands a few variant pronunciations: line 10's "wondering" functions as two syllables, and line 12's "continual" as three; line 11's "records" (although it is a noun, not a verb) is to be stressed on the second syllable.

Analysis

Shakespeare addresses the ideas of change and growth in one's lifetime by metaphorically standing up against timeFather Time.The major theme is that years continue to pass and the narrator is naturally getting older with each passing year, but he does not feel that it is necessary for his character to change accordingly. There are changes in the physical world that may happen within one's lifetime (pyramids), but that is not substantial on a personal level. Even so, we ought to respect what was done before us; however, that does not mean we have to revere it and at the same time an individual's pride would persuade one to think of these ideas as one's own, rather than something merely copied from the past (lines 5–8). There is little point in worrying about what has already happened, or for that matter worrying about what is happening now, but one should just live one's life for what it is. Copying down events and comparing written records with mental recollection is pointless because it wastes time in the present to do so, and time is continually moving (lines 9–12). Finally, the narrator resolves that no matter what happens in life (as new events to come are "done" by Time) he will stick to his own constitution andbe true to himselfregardless of what any consequences may be.

There are numerous other takes on the sonnet ranging from the poem's use of time (or lack thereof) as a metaphor for the tyranny of post-modernist working life as well as the potential sociopolitical themes apparent in the poem's thematic fear of change (conservatism).

This sonnet is one of the few pieces in Shakespeare that references ideas such as time, change, and death without the use of directbiblicalor literary allusion.

References

First edition and facsimile

• Shakespeare, William(1609).Shake-speares Sonnets: Never Before Imprinted.London:Thomas Thorpe.
• Lee, Sidney,ed. (1905).Shakespeares Sonnets: Being a reproduction in facsimile of the first edition.Oxford:Clarendon Press.OCLC458829162.

Variorum editions

• Alden, Raymond Macdonald,ed. (1916).The Sonnets of Shakespeare.Boston:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.OCLC234756.
• Rollins, Hyder Edward,ed. (1944).A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Sonnets [2 Volumes].Philadelphia:J. B. Lippincott & Co.OCLC6028485.—Volume IandVolume IIat theInternet Archive

Modern critical editions

• Atkins, Carl D., ed. (2007).Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary.Madison:Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.ISBN978-0-8386-4163-7.OCLC86090499.
• Booth, Stephen,ed. (2000) [1st ed. 1977].Shakespeare's Sonnets(Rev. ed.). New Haven:Yale Nota Bene.ISBN0-300-01959-9.OCLC2968040.
• Burrow, Colin, ed. (2002).The Complete Sonnets and Poems.The Oxford Shakespeare.Oxford:Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0192819338.OCLC48532938.
• Duncan-Jones, Katherine,ed. (2010) [1st ed. 1997].Shakespeare's Sonnets.Arden Shakespeare,third series (Rev. ed.). London:Bloomsbury.ISBN978-1-4080-1797-5.OCLC755065951.—1st editionat theInternet Archive
• Evans, G. Blakemore,ed. (1996).The Sonnets.The New Cambridge Shakespeare.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521294034.OCLC32272082.
• Kerrigan, John,ed. (1995) [1st ed. 1986].The Sonnets; and, A Lover's Complaint.New Penguin Shakespeare(Rev. ed.).Penguin Books.ISBN0-14-070732-8.OCLC15018446.
• Mowat, Barbara A.; Werstine, Paul, eds. (2006).Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems.Folger Shakespeare Library.New York:Washington Square Press.ISBN978-0743273282.OCLC64594469.
• Orgel, Stephen,ed. (2001).The Sonnets.The Pelican Shakespeare (Rev. ed.). New York:Penguin Books.ISBN978-0140714531.OCLC46683809.
• Vendler, Helen,ed. (1997).The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts:The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.ISBN0-674-63712-7.OCLC36806589.

External links

• Shakespeare's sonnet guide to Sonnet 123