Sonnet 12

[Daoloth]

What's this about then? ;)

[Sindhu]

Assuming you're asking the question seriously ;)
Te sonnet is in the firstplace about mortality and decay- a variation on "the paths of glory lead but to the grave" theme. Intially Time is presented as all powerful. Floers fade, black curls turn white, trees shed their leaves, the crops which had stood proud and green in the fields are cut down and carried away as on a deathbed. Watching the way time and age conspire to overtake all youth and beauty, the poet is forced to contemplate the tmporary fleeting nature of his beloved's beauty. new youth arises ad the older graces must wake way for them almost as an inevitable law of nature. So far the poem is sombre and even defeatist. But in the concluding couplet the poet hurls a challenge to time. There is onething which can withstand the onslaught of time and decay and that is "breed" ie begetting children so tht ones beauty, grace and talents are passed on to yet another generationand so on till the end of recorded time. One's children, the last line suggests are the repositories of ones former beauty and glory with which one can defy time, to the effect that even if time has the power "to take thee hence" he cannot destroy the living memorials you leave behind in your children
BTW, the poem fits in neatly with the other sonnets where Shakespeare is constantly advising the recipient, to marry and produce children.
Now please tell me you DID ask the questionseriously and Ididn't make a fool of myself by "explaining" ;)

[Isagel]

I thinks it´s interesting to compare this to the later sonnets, as number
XVII, where he writes

"But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice; in it and in my rhyme."

All things pass away, but in our children and in art we might live on . Not fully, we will all be lost eventually, but the idea of us or some part of the beauty.

[Sindhu]

It's interesting that in the Sonnets to the Dark Laady, Shakespeare generally puts forth Art as the monument which defies time and in those addressed to his Male patron, the solution is generally "breeding!"

[Daoloth]

:D

Stay your worried tremble Sindhu and instead bask in the warmth of my gratitude.
I did ask seriously and I'm happy that someone took it as such.

Isagel, a "thank you" to you as well. :)

[Daoloth]

"The path of glory lead but to the grave"?

Where did you get that from?
I'm asking in earnest interest, as I haven't met it yet. Is it something else from Shakespeare specifically or just from his time?

[Daoloth]

Ok, I found it.

Thomas Gray, except he was after Shakespeare's time ;)

Others are allowed to say their piece on this too you know :)