Sonnet 123: No, Time, Thou Shalt Not Boast That I Do Change
Sonnet 123: No, Time, Thou Shalt Not Boast That I Do Change - meaning Summary
Defiance Against Time
Shakespeare’s sonnet addresses Time as an antagonist and refuses its authority to change the speaker. The poem argues that apparent novelties are recycled pasts repackaged, and official records and monuments mislead through haste. The speaker rejects both present and past as unreliable and vows steadfastness: a personal constancy and fidelity that will outlast Time’s claims, symbolized by the scythe, even if physical change occurs.
Read Complete AnalysesNo, 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 wond’ring 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.
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