Sonnets 15 & 16: “You most rich in truth…”

15

When I consider every thing that grows

Holds in perfection but a little moment,

That this huge stage presenteth naught but shows

Whereon the Stars in secret influence comment;

When I perceive that men as plants increase,

Cheerèd and check’d even by the self-same sky,

Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,

And wear their brave state out of memory,

Then the conceit of this inconstant stay,

Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,

Where wasteful time debateth with decay

To change your day of youth to sullied night,

And all in war with Time for love of you

As he takes from you, I ingraft you new.

16

But wherefore do not you a mightier way

Make war upon this bloody tyrant time?

And fortify your self in your decay

With means more blessèd than my barren rhyme?

Now stand you on the top of happy hours,

And many maiden gardens yet unset,

With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,

Much liker than your painted counterfeit.

So should the lines of life that life repair

Which this (Time’s pencil or my pupil pen)

Neither in inward worth nor outward fair

Can make you live your self in eyes of men.

To give away your self, keeps your self still,

And you must live drawn by your own sweet skill.

“These two sonnets make another pair that must be read as one poem (like Sonnets 5 and 6).… The pair introduces for the first time the theme of W.’s ability to immortalize Y.M. in verse. The importance of Sonnet 16 is that it makes that theme secondary to the power of procreation. 

“Sonnet 15 is filled with evocative phrases...The syntax is clear as the images change subtly, starting with things that grow, moving to the world as a stage, influenced by the stars (referring us back to Sonnet 14), everything Cheerèd and check’d, by the same sky. We think of an audience cheering actors, yet in the next line the youthful sap draws us back into a garden…. 

“Sonnet 16 is less complex. The main metaphor here is a simple and conventional one. W. paints a word picture of Y.M. with his verse (the painted counterfeit), which explains the phrase about the pencil and the pen in line 10. In Shakespeare’s day, pencil was another word for paintbrush. Here it’s used as a metaphor for the painter’s art. It’s compared to a pen, a metaphor for the poem being written. It’s Time’s pencil because, as W. said in Sonnet 15, his verse will immortalize Y.M. for all time (the poem is Time’s paintbrush). The pupil pen is our familiar condensed adjective: “the pen of a pupil, which is therefore inexpert.” This exaggerated humility is another convention on the part of W. We mustn’t take this seriously (Y.M. wouldn’t have)….

“What are we to make of all this? What do we imagine Y.M. makes of it? Fourteen lines proclaiming W.’s ability to immortalize Y.M. in his verse. Immediately followed by: ‘Oh no, don’t pay any attention to that sonnet, there’s a much better way. Rather than rely on my poor verse, my painted counterfeit that can only mimic you, I have a much better way (you’ll never guess)—give yourself to a woman and draw an image of yourself by having a child.’ Does this sound sincere? Is W. truly backing away from his claim of Sonnet 15? Or is it just a feeble attempt to continue the procreation theme? Do those last few words in the couplet tell us anything: drawn by your own sweet skill? Is this just flattery?”

—Shakespeare’s Sonnets Among His Private Friends, p.44-45 (publication date 10/1/21)