Sonnet 55: Not Marble, nor the Gilded Monuments
Sonnet 55: Not Marble, nor the Gilded Monuments - form Summary
Couplet Seals Immortal Claim
This poem is a Shakespearean sonnet that argues a poem can outlast physical monuments. The quatrains contrast decaying stone, war, and time with the poem’s capacity to preserve the beloved’s fame. The argument culminates in the final couplet, which asserts that the addressee will live on through verse and in the eyes of lovers until judgment day. It presents poetic inscription as a form of immortality.
Read Complete AnalysesNot marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme, But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils root out the work of masonry, Nor Mars his sword, nor war’s quick fire shall burn The living record of your memory. ‘Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room Even in the eyes of all posterity That wear this world out to the ending doom. So, till the judgment that yourself arise, You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.
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