My study of Shakespeare’s sonnets continues.  Read the first post if you’re not sure what “study” I’m talking about.  The short version is that I’m going through The Sonnets one by one, reading, reflecting, dissecting, and discussing them here.  The interpretations are my own; I’m not seeking input from other sources before posting my thoughts.  Ideally, as Shreds of Truth gains readers, this will become a good source of discussion and civil debate… at least, that is my hope.

Sonnet 2

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery, so gaz’d on now,
Will be a tatter’d weed, of small worth held;
Then being ask’d where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserv’d thy beauty’s use,
If thou couldst answer ‘This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,’
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
    This were to be new made when thou art old,
    And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.

What I get out of it

Großvater und Enkel

“When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,” at least, is pretty straightforward:  in Shakespeare’s time, forty years of age was somewhat advanced in years.  A forty-something living in the early 1600s could expect to be rather wrinkly, with “deep trenches” across their formerly beautiful faces.  The healthy appearance of youth, which now earns admiring glances, will be admired no more than “a tatter’d weed” once age has stolen it away.

If someone then asks where “thy beauty” has gone, to answer “within thine own deep-sunken eyes” seems a “shame.”  In other words, if beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder, then someday the beholder might have cause to change his or her mind.

Fortunately, Shakespeare gives us the solution!  If a formerly beautiful person passes his or her beauty on to a “fair child,” the parent’s beauty hasn’t truly vanished… it has merely been inherited.  This will “excuse” any signs of age in the parent, according to our poet.  To have children is “to be new made when thou art old” — to see yourself reborn — and “thy blood” will be “warm” in a child’s veins even as it runs “cold” in yours.

Is it relevant?

Absolutely.  Parents still feel this way about their children.  What loving, caring parent (yeah, I know, they come in other flavors) doesn’t see themselves in their child?  Who doesn’t try to give their kids all the things the parents wanted but didn’t have?  Who doesn’t see their kids… at least until a certain age… as miniature clones of themselves?

…Ok, conceivably some parents don’t.  Lots do.  So, yes, Sonnet 2 is still quite relevant.

Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him. –1 John 5:1, World English Version

(Painting:  “An Old Man and His Grandson” by Domenico Ghirlandaio)