This singer of sonnets has many times broached the subject of how the passage of time leads to depredation. Also as he has done in many other sonnets, in sonnet 60, the speaker insists that his poems will keep alive his essential subjects.
First Quatrain: “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore”
In the first quatrain, the speaker likens each human being’s time to the waves of the sea that “make towards the pebbled shore.” He says, as do the waves, “our minutes hasten to their end.”
The waves, and thus time, do not simply move leisurely; they “hasten.” This observation implies that the speaker is not a young romantic rapscallion, but rather a mature, seasoned individual who has lived long enough to sense that human life on earth passes quickly.
He further observes about the “minutes” that hasten like the waves, “Each changing place with that which goes before, / In sequent toil all forwards do contend.” Each minute replaces the earlier minute just as each succeeding wave replaces the other on its way to the shore.
Second Quatrain: “Nativity, once in the main of light”
Upon being born, the young feel that life “[c]rawls to maturity”; youngsters universally wish to be older as they grow “in the main of light.” They believe in their own invincibility, until they experience “[c]rooked eclipses ‘gainst ‘[their] glory,” or adversity despite their unique abilities.
Then they must “fight” against the new-found knowledge that they are, in fact, aging, changing from their glorious youth to maturity that requires more of them than romantic folly. The same “Time” that they were given at birth later seems to confuse them. The gift of life becomes a burden that they must contend with to find the real purpose of life.
Third Quatrain: “Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth”
Continuing his mournful plaint, the speaker avers that “Time” changes the youthful by drawing lines on the forehead, a symbol of growing old. “[N]ature’s truth” is devoured by time regardless of how “rare” the individual’s particular gift of beauty may be. Each individual is born with unique physical and mental assets, but no matter what the physical/mental assets/gifts are “nothing stands but for [Time’s] scythe to mow.”
The speaker dramatically asserts that time cuts down all youth, as a mower would cut down weeds with a scythe. He emphasizes this fact of life, dramatizing and portraying it through metaphor after metaphor. He realizes the intensity with which all human beings experience this phenomenon, and he exploits it mercilessly.
The Couplet: “And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand”
As usual, in the couplet, the speaker attempts to assuage the guts and gore he has portrayed in the quatrains: “And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand / Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.” Despite the fact that time erases all, everything in “my verse shall stand.” He has undying confidence that whatever he places in his poems will live eternally.
Other Shakespeare articles: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 73, 96, 116, 126, 130, 138
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