Shakespeare's Sonnet 64

Here is a facsimile of the 1609 copy of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, from the complete Sonnets:

A modern English translation of another, sonnet 64, reads:

Sonnet 64

When I have seen by time's fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay,
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,
That time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

1. What is this sonnet about?


2. What kinds of imagery does it use?


3. How might we read this as more than a poem about love, death and time?

Explore further facsimiles of the sonnets at: Internet Shakespeare Editions.

Dr.M. Hope you are enjoying your break!