The speaker in Sonnet 22 asserts that despite his physical aging and death, his talent for creating poems will eternally retain his love, inspiring future generations.
First Quatrain: “My glass shall not persuade me I am old”
In the first quatrain, the speaker broaches the issue of aging. He asserts that when he looks into his mirror, he will not believe he is old as long as youth itself and his writing talent/poems have not aged. Of course, youth itself will not have aged, and it makes sense that his poems will not age. They will sit eternally on the page ever speaking in the speaker’s voice.
However, if he finds that his poems are aging with “time’s furrows,” he shall expect his own life will atone for his own death. His life can only accomplish such atonement through his creative writing, his poetry, his sonnets.
Second Quatrain: “For all that beauty that doth cover thee”
The speaker asserts that the beauty that decorates his poems is same as the beauty that grows in the speaker’s heart. The same beauty and life that live in the poetry’s heart also live in the speaker’s heart; they are one and the same, so one cannot be older than the other.
The speaker, even though he will eventually appear in the mirror to reflect a withered brow and graying hair, will still remain his youth because of his ability to understand the ageless soul nature of his own being and that of his poetry.
Third Quatrain: “O! therefore, love, be of thyself so wary”
In the third quatrain, the speaker addresses “love,” personifying his beloved writing and asking it guard itself against the danger of sinking into mediocrity, because he will also take this same precaution. He will guard his talent the same way a “tender nurse [protects] her babe from faring ill.”
The speaker can make such seemingly obvious promises, because he and his works are one, just as he and his heart’s love are one and the same. The drama he creates brings out into the light of day the thoughts and feelings that usually run beneath the surface like an underground river.
The Couplet: “Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain”
In the couplet, the speaker addresses his sonnet and asks it not to think merely because this speaker/poet will die that it will die also. When he received the gift from God that became his writing talent, he retained it for all eternity; therefore, the speaker/poet’s physical death cannot result in his spiritual death, and he is leaving his love easily received by future generations in his sonnets and other writings.
Other articles on Shakespeare: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: Sonnet 1, Sonnet 2, Sonnet 3, Sonnet 4, Sonnet 5, Sonnet 6, Sonnet 7, Sonnet 8, Sonnet 9, Sonnet 10, Sonnet 11, Sonnet 12, Sonnet 13, Sonnet 14, Sonnet 15, Shakespeare Sonnet 16, Sonnet 17, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 20, Sonnet 21, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130, Sonnet 138
