Sonnet 77

Aggiornato

Shakespeare. Sonnet 1

«Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste». 

The youth’s aging face will be reflected in a mirror, and the passage of time will be reflected on his watch, clashing with the youth’s eternally young thoughts.

Sonnet 77
Read and listen

Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;
The vacant leaves thy mind’s imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning mayst thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory;
Thou by thy dial’s shady stealth mayst know
Time’s thievish progress to eternity.
Look, what thy memory can not contain
Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, deliver’d from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.

»»» Sonnets introduction
»»» Sonnets complete list

As the young man ages, each wrinkle on his face will remind him of a memory from his youth. However, because the young man will not be able to remember every event from his life, the poet gives him a notebook in which to write his thoughts. This notebook, like the poet’s sonnets, will become a history — a record of the young man’s beauty while he was yet young.

««« Sonnet 76
»»» Sonnet 78

Credits

English audio from YouTube Channel Socratica

Summary from Cliffsnotes.com

»»» Sonnets introduction
»»» Sonnets complete list

PirandelloWeb