Sonnet 12 claims that everything the speaker watches, from a clock striking to a harvest carried off like a corpse, proves the young man’s beauty must die too, and that only a child can stand up to Time when it comes for him.
Sonnet 12: Full Poem
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 defense
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized. In line 4, the Quarto reads “sable curls or silvered o’er”; most editions print “all.”
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 12 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 12 Means
Sonnet 12 builds a long list of things time destroys, then applies the list to the young man in a single sentence.
The first quatrain begins the list. When the speaker counts the strokes of a striking clock, and sees the splendid day sink into hideous night; when he sees the violet past its best, and black curls turned silver-white with age.
The second quatrain continues it. When he sees tall trees stripped of the leaves that once shaded the herd from the heat, and the green of summer bound up in sheaves and carried off on a cart, with its white, bristly ears of grain, like an old man’s body carried on a funeral bier.
The third quatrain draws the conclusion. Then he begins to wonder about the young man’s beauty, knowing that he too must go among the things time lays waste, since sweet and beautiful things abandon their own beauty and die as fast as they see others grow.
The couplet names the only defense. Nothing can stand against Time’s scythe except children, who can defy Time when it takes the young man away.
Sonnet 12 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 12 sets the young man inside the whole natural world, and its themes follow from that wider view.
Time Measured and Time Seen
The poem opens with time as a clock counts it, stroke by stroke, and then shows what that counting means in the world: day becoming night, flowers fading, hair turning white, trees going bare, crops cut down. The abstract ticking of the clock becomes visible, everywhere the speaker looks.
Everything Beautiful Declines
Line 11 states the rule that governs the list: “sweets and beauties do themselves forsake.” Beautiful things do not merely lose their beauty; they seem to abandon it, dying “as fast as they see others grow.” The young man, the poem implies, is one more item on the list.
Breed as Defiance
The couplet admits that Time will take the young man; there is no escape from the scythe. What a child offers is not rescue but defiance, a way to “brave” Time at the moment of loss. The later Procreation Sonnets, especially Sonnet 15, will offer a second form of defiance: verse.
Form and Language
Sonnet 12 is built as one long sentence, and its structure carries its argument.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Its argument also follows the older Italian shape: the first eight lines describe decay in nature, and the last six apply it to the young man.
“When … When … Then”
Lines 1, 3, and 5 each begin with “When,” and line 9 begins with “Then.” The repetition piles example on example, like a clock striking, before the single conclusion lands. The grammar makes the young man’s fate feel as automatic as the hour.
The Harvest as a Funeral
Lines 7 and 8 turn a harvest into a funeral. The sheaves are carried “on the bier,” the frame for a coffin, and the ripe grain has a “white and bristly beard,” like an old man’s. Summer’s green does not simply end; it is buried.
A Poem Numbered Twelve
Many readers have noticed that Sonnet 12 begins with a clock, and that Sonnet 60 is about minutes. Whether the numbering was deliberate is unknown, but the match between twelve hours and Sonnet 12 is hard to miss.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 12 uses the word “brave” twice, once for what time destroys and once for what can defy it, and the two uses hold the whole poem together.
In line 2, the speaker sees “the brave day sunk in hideous night.” Here “brave” means splendid, fine, glorious. It is the first casualty on the poem’s list: the bright day, gone under. Everything that follows is a version of the same loss, splendor sinking into darkness, from the violet to the black curls to summer’s green.
In the last line, the word returns with a different meaning. A child can “brave him,” meaning defy Time, when Time takes the young man away. To brave something is to face it boldly. But the earlier sense has not vanished. A child is also “brave” in the first way: fresh, splendid, a new day to replace the one that sank.
So the poem’s solution answers its first image in the same word. The brave day sinks; the brave child rises and braves the one who sank it. The couplet does not deny the loss. Time still “takes thee hence.” What it offers is a word that means both beauty and courage, as if the only way to stand up to Time is to be, once again, what Time destroyed.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 12, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 12 Addressed To?
The young man of the Fair Youth sonnets, the same unnamed figure the Procreation Sonnets urge to marry and have children.
What Does “When I Do Count the Clock That Tells the Time” Mean?
When I count the strokes of a clock as it strikes the hour. The speaker is listening to time passing, one chime at a time.
What Is “Time’s Scythe”?
The blade carried by the figure of Time, pictured as a reaper who cuts down every living thing, as a farmer cuts down grain. It links the couplet to the harvest image of lines 7 and 8.
What Does “Save Breed, to Brave Him” Mean?
Except children, who can defy him. “Breed” means offspring, and “brave” means to face or challenge boldly. Only a child can stand up to Time after it has taken the young man.
Is Line 4 “All Silvered” or “Or Silvered”?
The 1609 Quarto reads “sable curls or silvered o’er with white.” Most editions change “or” to “all.” Some scholars keep “or” as a term from heraldry, where “sable” means black and “or” means gold.
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets frame Sonnet 12’s meditation on time.