Sonnet 14 claims that the speaker cannot read fortunes in the stars, but can read one in the young man’s eyes: if he has a child, truth and beauty will thrive; if not, his death will be their end.
Sonnet 14: Full Poem
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
And yet methinks I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find;
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 14 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 14 Means
Sonnet 14 begins by listing all the things the speaker cannot foretell, then makes one prediction he is sure of.
The first quatrain disclaims astrology. The speaker does not get his judgment from the stars, though he thinks he has a kind of knowledge of them. But it is not the kind that predicts good or bad luck, plagues, famines, or what the seasons will bring.
The second quatrain continues the list. He cannot tell fortunes minute by minute, assigning each moment its thunder, rain, and wind, or tell princes whether things will go well for them, using the frequent signs that astrologers claim to find in the heavens.
The third quatrain names his real source. He takes his knowledge from the young man’s eyes, and in those steady stars he reads this: truth and beauty will flourish together, if the young man turns from himself to producing children.
The couplet gives the alternative forecast. Otherwise, the speaker predicts, the young man’s death will be the end and final date of truth and beauty.
Sonnet 14 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 14 brings the procreation argument into the language of prophecy, and its themes grow from that shift.
Eyes as Stars
The speaker rejects the sky and reads the young man’s eyes instead. Calling a beloved’s eyes “stars” was a familiar compliment, but here it is also an argument: if his eyes are the speaker’s stars, then the fate they foretell is the young man’s to decide. Sonnet 116 returns to the image of a fixed, guiding star, applied there to love itself.
Truth and Beauty Together
The poem joins “truth and beauty” twice, first as a promise and then as a threat. In the young man, the two are united: his looks are matched by his worth. The forecast says they will thrive together only if he passes them on.
The End of Beauty
The couplet raises the stakes as far as they can go. Without a child, the young man’s death is not just his own end but “truth’s and beauty’s doom and date,” as though these qualities existed nowhere else. It is the Procreation Sonnets’ largest compliment and gravest warning in a single line.
Form and Language
Sonnet 14 spends half its length on a list of refusals, then puts its whole weight on the turn.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The first eight lines are a single chain of negatives, “Not,” “not,” “Nor,” before “But” in line 9 reverses the direction.
The Astrologer’s Catalog
Lines 3 to 8 list exactly what astrologers and almanac makers claimed to foretell: luck, plagues, famines, the weather, the fortunes of princes. The list is gently mocking. By naming these claims only to disown them, the speaker makes his own single prediction seem more trustworthy.
“Store”
To “convert” to “store” is to turn to breeding. “Store” meant stock kept for increase, the same word Sonnet 11 uses for those Nature made “for store.”
“Doom and Date”
The final phrase pairs two words for an ending. “Doom” means judgment or final fate, and “date” means the end of a set term, the same sense as in Sonnet 18, where “summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” The alliteration lands like a verdict.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 14 is a prophecy that hopes to be wrong, and that is what separates it from the astrology it mocks.
The speaker spends eight lines disowning the astrologer’s trade, and then does exactly what astrologers did: he “prognosticates,” the very word used for the published forecasts of the day. He has not given up prediction. He has only changed his stars, from the sky to the young man’s eyes.
But his forecast has a different shape. An astrologer foretold what would happen regardless of what anyone did. The speaker’s prediction is conditional: truth and beauty will thrive “If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert,” and die “Or else.” The future is not written in the young man’s eyes; it is waiting on his choice.
That makes the couplet a strange kind of prophecy. The speaker states the grim outcome with full confidence, “Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date,” precisely so that it will not come true. It is a warning dressed as a forecast. The best result for this prophet is to be proven wrong, which is the one thing no astrologer ever wanted.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 14, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 14 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 “Not From the Stars Do I My Judgment Pluck” Mean?
I do not get my judgment, or my knowledge of the future, from the stars. The speaker is rejecting astrology as a way of predicting what will happen.
What Does “Astronomy” Mean in Sonnet 14?
Knowledge of the stars, in the older sense that included astrology, the reading of fortunes from the heavens. In Shakespeare’s time the two were not clearly separated.
What Are the “Constant Stars”?
The young man’s eyes. The speaker calls them steady stars and reads his forecast in them instead of in the sky.
What Does “Doom and Date” Mean?
Final end and term limit. “Doom” means ultimate fate, and “date” means the time something runs out. Without a child, the young man’s death will be the end of truth and beauty.
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets frame Sonnet 14’s stars and forecasts.