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Noteshear this (13): 'Hear this' is a variation of 'hear ye', the cry that alerts the citizens to a public proclamation.Before...dead (14): i.e., those unborn (in the womb) will never see beauty in its perfect form: that time when Beauty (his lover) was at his peak and flourishing (in his summer). The theme of Sonnet 104, the ravages of Time, is one common throughout all of the sonnets. Here the poet uses his fond memories of first meeting his lover as inspiration to write the poem. It is clear from Sonnet 104, and the other sonnets as a whole, that the passion he feels for his male lover (possibly the Earl of Southampton), is the most intense experience of the poet's life. Nothing is important but his lover; his lover is eternal, both in beauty and spirit. Many have tried to deduce the actual date of the sonnet's composition and the true identity of Shakespeare's lover by the reference to the 'three years' which the friendship spanned to this point. Some argue that this certainly places us in the summer of 1594, and the 'Aprils' and 'Junes' mentioned are of 1592, 1593, and 1594. For supporters of the notion that Southampton was the lover, he would have been eighteen when they met and twenty-one at the time Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 104. However, critics of this dating method are many, and they argue that the poet's use of 'three' years specifically may be simply a poetic convention (based on the significance of the number three in the Bible) and not a literal reference to the time he has spent with his lover. How to cite this article: |
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