The remaining six lines are called the Sestate. Each sonnet has its particular rhyme scheme. There are three forms that can be seen, they are:
- Petrarchan – abba, abba, cde, cde.
- Spenserian – abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee. This form is present from 1552-1599.
- Shakespearean – abab, cdcd, efef, gg. This form is present from 1564-1616.
The forms were brought to England by:
- Sir Thomas Wright (1503-1542)
- Henry Howard Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shakespearean sonnets are numbered in roman numbers; Paul Grave named them.
Most of his sonnets follow the specified rhyme scheme of abab; cdcd, efef, gg but some of his sonnets follow another rhyme scheme. For example: sonnet no. Xxix or 29 follows the scheme abab, cdcd, ebeb, and ff. Each of his sonnets contains three quatrains ending with a rhymed couplet. The word “when” is used in nine of the 154 sonnets written by him.
Sonnets, such as 55, have looked forward to a time when the youth will live on through the verse of the poet: Sonnet 17 even considers that the record of the youth's outstanding beauty will not be believed by future generations:
Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
This sonnet however looks back to a time when knights and ladies led lives of romance and mystery, a time, which chroniclers have recorded for posterity in descriptions, which appear to foreshadow in some sense the youth's excelling beauty. The writers of past ages were aware, through some sort of divination, of a beauty that surpassed all others. Yet they did not know the youth, who was not yet born. Their songs therefore were mere prefiguring of his worth and glory, which now is appreciated, even though the present day poets lack the skill to sing of him adequately.
This sonnet is dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. He was a patron of Shakespeare and his vassal.
When in the chronicle of wasted time
When- He is talking about the past.
Chronicle - chronicles were written historical records of past times, compiled by a 'chronicler', who was often a monk. Examples are the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, and Bede's 'History of the Church of England'. Shakespeare relied heavily on Holinshed's Chronicle History of England (first published 1577) for many of his history plays. There were other chronicles of English history which Shakespeare would probably also have in mind in this reference, most notably John Stow's "Annales, or a General Chronicle of England from Brute unto this present year of Christ, 1580", published in 1580, with other editions in 1592, 1601 and 1605.
Wasted time = time which is past, hence destroyed, wasted. A reversal of the normal expression, Time the destroyer. Waste derives from the Latin word, vastare, to lay waste in warfare, to destroy. Time in its progress figuratively creates deserts of forgotten people and nations.
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
Wights = men and women. An archaic word even in Shakespeare's time, though favored by Spenser. Shakespeare uses it in Gower's speech in Pericles, Gower being the type of archaic poet (c.1330-1408):
That whoso asked her for his wife,
His riddle told not lost his life.
So for her many a wight did die, Per.Prologue.37-9.
The fairest wights = the most beautiful men and women. We can assume that even in Shakespeare's day the age of chivalry seemed far distant and was peopled imaginatively with men and women of extraordinary beauty and fabulous costumes of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme
The descriptions of the beauty of old times beautify the verse of the old chronicles. The earliest chronicles were written in verse, and were probably recited at gatherings accompanied by music.
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights;
Dead - refers both to the ladies and lovely knights. Emphasizes that they all lived long ago.
Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best
Then- His reaction to the first word of first quatrain “When”. This emphasizes the present.
Blazon = emblazoning, A description, painting, or record of any kind; esp. a record of virtues or Excellencies. The term is heraldic, and to emblazon was to adorn something with heraldic devices, or with descriptions.
Sweet beauty's best = the best of all beautiful things (persons), both in the sense of the best parts of them, and the most choice examples from among them.
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
A further description of the blazon of sweet beauty - hands, feet, lips, eyes, brows could all be singled out for special mention. These are also of course the parts the attributes of which are most praised by sonneteers. See for example 130:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun etc.
I see their antique pen would have exprest
Their antique pen = the style and subject matter of the writers of the ancient chronicles.
Would have exprest = would potentially, if they were to be writing now, portray you etc.; would have described you, if you were alive then. The you as in the Earl.
Antique in addition to the meaning of 'ancient and old-fashioned' also had overtones of 'fantastic, ludicrous and grotesque'.
The implication of lines 1-8 seems to be: 'The poets of old who wrote the chronicles were much better at portraying beauty than present day writers, and would have made a far better job of describing you than any modern writer. That is apparent from a reading of the blazons of beauty that they have left us. Had our lovely youth been alive in those times, with the beauty he now has, they would have risen wonderfully to the challenge of describing him'.
Exprest = described, portrayed. An archaic form of word .See the sonnet:
Therefore my verse to constancy confined,
one thing expressing, leaves out difference.
Ev’n such a beauty as you master now.
Master = possess, have in one's control.
You master now- The Earl is one the most beautiful people and he now masters the beauty that the ancient poets wrote about.
So all their praises are but prophecies
So- it is almost of a conclusion, which comes after the end of the Sestate. And at the beginning of octave.
Their praises = the chroniclers' praise of beautiful people. Insofar as they praised beautiful people then living, they were mistaken, for their praise really related to you, although you were not then alive. Consequently all their praises were prophetic of your beauty, which now exists, but was not available at the time to them, even though they praised the semblance of it.
Of this our time, all you prefiguring;
Their descriptions of beauty were prefigurations of your beauty. They just eulogize the beauty of the Earl unknowing of his existence in past times.
And for they look’d but with divining eyes,
For that they looked but with = because they only looked with
divining eyes = eyes which look into the future or godly eyes. He has raised the earl on a pedestal equating him a position that is godly.
They had not skill enough your worth to sing:
Skill - this is an emendation. If it is retained one probably has to understand some additional word such as 'knowledge' or 'understanding' to complete the meaning. 'They still lacked the necessary understanding to sing of your true worth'. Endorsement of skill is found in two early manuscript copies of this sonnet.
For we, which now behold these present days,
This is the rhymed couplet. It is a sort of anticlimax.
For we - this has the meaning of 'but we', since it contrasts the awareness of the present age with the myopia of the past.
Which = who
Behold- another word for I see used in 3rd line of second quatrain.
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
Although we wonder at your beauty, we lack the poetic talent to sing of it adequately. The poet modestly belittles his own efforts, but the poem itself seems to contradict what he here declares.
The tone of this sonnet is eulogizing the Earl of Southampton. Shakespeare becomes humble and modest by saying that he is incapable of praising the Earl to the extent that he should be praised. He shows humility by saying that he lacks the skill required to praise the beauty of the earl. He is talking about the praise of the earl through the entire span of time that through each decade of past, present and future each poet who wrote or writes or will write about beauty is in actuality writing about the beauty of the earl.
In the octave he talks about the past. His mention of the words old rhyme, antique pen, blazon and chronicle portray the era gone by. The tone of the octave states that all poets in past who wrote about beauty wrote about the earl. But he also contradicts by saying that the ancient poets though writing about the beauty of the earl cannot do justice to it in their verse.
In the Sestate the tone he reaches the conclusion that even he who is so in love with the beauty of the earl, cannot praise it sufficiently. But again in another of his sonnets he contradicts his own statement:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The attitude of this sonnet is again eulogizing the earl. The Intention behind it is to make everyone aware that they are not capable of writing any verse that could compare the beauty of the earl.
The structure of this poem is a sonnet. A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem. It is divided in to parts the first eight lines are octave, the next six line are Sestate. Each four lines of stanza are called quatrain. The rhyme scheme is very prominently Shakespearean of abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
The Iambic pentameter is dominant in almost all the lines except the first of each quatrain where the iambic tetrameter is prevalent along with an occasional spondee.
The second and the fourth line of each quatrain is an end-stopped line where as the rest are enjambments, except for the third quatrain where all except first line are end-stopped lines.
The versification of this sonnet glides from one segment of time to another in a graceful yet elaborate way, which allows us a feeling of rhythm.
The language used is mostly the archaic way of writing as was common to the Shakespearean ages.
There is alliteration used in the first lines of all three quatrains.
E.g. When and wasted in first quatrain
Blazon, beauty and best in second quatrain
Praises and prophecies in third quatrain.
There is a use of personification in the third line of second quatrain where the quality of a living being is given to their antique pen, for it is the poets who write not their pens which are only tools.
There is also symbolism in the last line of the sonnet when it is said they lack tongues to praise. The word tongue is symbolic of the poetry written by the poets long ago.
Shakespeare has produced the image of time as it ages and continues to age, he has also shown us through his words the beauty possessed by the Earl, a kind of beauty that though he shows it to us, he contradicts it by saying that his portrayal of that beauty is no sufficient to that of the Earl.
My personal evaluation is that Shakespeare praises the Earl too much. I personally believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and even an ugly thing becomes beautiful when looked upon in the correct way. And it is presumptuous of him to think that the Earl is so beautiful that he demeans his ancestors by saying that they cannot write. And I personally feel that to eulogize to such an extent bends an imagination towards romanticizing.