First Quatrain: “Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea”
The speaker of Shakespeare Sonnet 65 begins by listing some of the strong physical attributes of the cosmos, “brass, [ ] stone, [ ] earth, [the] boundless sea,” but again laments, “But sad mortality o’ersways their power.” Even these objects that seem so sturdy and enduring are all ravaged by the power of “mortality.”
The speaker then inquires, “How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, / Whose action is no stronger than a flower?” How can beauty overcome the devastation brought on by old age and Time, when beauty offers no opposition? Its motion is less than that of a flower, which also portrays beauty but no power of struggle.
Second Quatrain: “O! how shall summer’s honey breath hold out”
The speaker continues his query, wondering “how shall summer’s honey breath hold out / Against the wrackful siege of battering days?” Summer symbolizes all the bright and sunny things of the earth that give pleasure, but the fact is that the season lasts only a few short months.
Even rocks that seem so strong and “impregnable,” in actuality, “are not so stout.” Not even “gates of steel” are strong enough to stand up to ruinous Time, who causes all matter to perish.
Third Quatrain: “O fearful meditation! where, alack”
The speaker exclaims, inquiring of his own musing, and emphatically demands to know where Time hides his “best jewel.” Where does Time keep the things that he truly wants to spare?
The speaker furthermore wonders, “what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?” The speaker’s questions are not merely rhetorical, although they do imply that an answer does exist. He then poses another question: who can keep Time from spoiling beauty? By asking these questions, the speaker hints that he knows how to complete these acts of holding back Time’s fleet foot and erasing Time’s effect on beauty.
The Couplet: “O! none, unless this miracle have might”
The speaker then seems to admit that nothing can keep Time from destroying love and beauty: he confesses, “O! none,” but then immediately, he pulls back from this assertion by saying, “unless this miracle have might.”
And what “miracle” would that be? The power of his sonnets, of course: in his “black ink,” he will continue to dramatize and to immortalize his love, and that love will continue to “shine bright.”
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, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 73, 96, 116, 126, 130, 138, 146
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