Sonnet 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old
Sonnet 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old - meaning Summary
Age Denied Through Shared Love
Shakespeare’s speaker refuses to accept physical aging while his beloved remains youthful, insisting their shared life and mutual possession of hearts preserve his youth. He warns that if Time carves lines in the beloved, it will signal his own death. The poem frames love as reciprocal embodiment—each holds the other’s heart—and cautions the beloved not to assume control or return what was freely given when the speaker is gone.
Read Complete AnalysesMy glass shall not persuade me I am old So long as youth and thou are of one date; But when in thee Time’s furrows I behold, Then look I death my days should expiate. For all that beauty that doth cover thee Is but the seemly raiment of my heart, Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me. How can I then be elder than thou art? O, therefore, love, be of thyself so wary As I not for myself, but for thee will, Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary As tender nurse her babe from faring ill. Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain; Thou gav’st me thine, not to give back again.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.