Sonnet 65: Since Brass, nor Stone, nor Earth, nor Boundless Sea
Sonnet 65: Since Brass, nor Stone, nor Earth, nor Boundless Sea - form Summary
A Sonnet's Defiant Couplet
This poem is a Shakespearean sonnet that stages an argument about Time’s power to destroy beauty and material monuments. The three quatrains enumerate nature’s and human works’ vulnerability, building anxiety about inevitable decay. The final rhymed couplet performs the poem’s turn: the speaker proposes a single, poetical remedy—preservation through written verse, "black ink"—claiming poetry can make a loved one’s beauty endure against Time.
Read Complete AnalysesSince brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o’ersways their power, How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower? O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out Against the wrackful siege of batt’ring days, When rocks impregnable are not so stout, Nor gates of steel so strong but Time decays? O, fearful meditation! Where, alack, Shall Time’s best jewel from Time’s chest lie hid? Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back? Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid? O, none, unless this miracle have might, That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.