William Shakespeares Sonnet Twelve (When I Do Count The Clock That Tells The Time) is the 12th of his 154 sonnets published in 1609. This is also the Twelfth of the “Fair Youth” sonnets, in which an unnamed man is being addressed by the speaker. In addition to that, it’s the Twelfth of the “procreation sonnets” where he feels compelled to convince the fair youth he’s addressing to get out there and get busy with procreation. Again, we see the changing of seasons and the use of their imagery as a parallel to the aging of the fair youth. Shakespeare uses the inevitability of these changes as a warning to the fair youth that he, like all in nature, will grow old and pass away. Not only will death take the youth, but his beauty will be short lived as well. Just as the world of nature will change form with time, this is also inevitable for humans. Then, as with all of the previous sonnets, this mortality is best faced by having children. As they will live on, though the youth grow old and eventually die.
Sonnet Twelve – When I Do Count The Clock That Tells The Time
When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls, all silvered o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves,
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
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