Sonnet 108: What’s in the Brain That Ink May Character
Sonnet 108: What’s in the Brain That Ink May Character - meaning Summary
Renewal Despite Repeated Words
The speaker admits there is nothing new to write about his beloved, yet insists on repeating the same declarations daily. He argues that repetition does not age love; instead it renews and preserves it, keeping the original feeling alive despite time and physical change. The poem claims love’s essence transcends outward decay, making each restatement as fresh and sacred as the first.
Read Complete AnalysesWhat’s in the brain that ink may character Which hath not figured to thee my true spirit? What’s new to speak, what now to register, That may express my love, or thy dear merit? Nothing, sweet boy, but yet, like prayers divine, I must each day say o’er the very same, Counting no old thing old thou mine, I thine Even as when first I hallowed thy fair name. So that eternal love in love’s fresh case Weighs not the dust and injury of age, Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place, But makes antiquity for aye his page, Finding the first conceit of love there bred Where time and outward form would show it dead.
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