Sonnet 2 claims that when the young man is old and asked where his beauty went, pointing to his own sunken eyes will be a shameful answer, and that only a child can give the proof his beauty once existed.
Sonnet 2: Full Poem
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed, of small worth held:
Then being asked where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes
Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty’s use,
If thou couldst answer, “This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,”
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 2 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 2 Means
Where Sonnet 1 makes an argument, Sonnet 2 stages a scene: the young man, forty years on, asked a question he cannot answer well.
The first quatrain pictures age as a siege. When forty winters have attacked his brow and dug deep trenches, wrinkles, in the field of his beauty, the proud uniform of his youth, so admired now, will be a ragged garment that no one values.
The second quatrain imagines the question. When someone asks him then where all his beauty has gone, where all the treasure of his vigorous youth is, to answer that it lies within his own sunken eyes would be a shame that swallows everything, and empty self-praise.
The third quatrain offers a better answer. How much more his beauty’s use would deserve praise if he could say, “This beautiful child of mine will settle my account and excuse my old age,” proving by inheritance that the child’s beauty was once his.
The couplet ends gently. Having a child would be like being made new in old age, and seeing his own blood warm in another body when he feels it cold in his own.
Sonnet 2 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 2 takes the general argument of Sonnet 1 and makes it personal and visible, and its themes follow the young man into old age.
Time as a Siege
Time does not strike suddenly. It surrounds the young man for forty years and digs in, the way an army besieges a city. The trenches it digs are wrinkles, and the field it ruins is his face. The image makes aging slow, methodical, and certain.
Life as an Account
“Treasure,” “thriftless,” and “sum my count” come from the language of money. Beauty is a fortune, and old age is the moment the books are examined. The same language runs through the Procreation Sonnets, most fully in Sonnet 4, where death demands an “acceptable audit.”
Renewal in a Child
After twelve lines of pressure, the couplet offers comfort: to be “new made when thou art old,” and to see your own blood warm in a child when it runs cold in you. It is an offer rather than a threat, and it is the tenderest moment in the opening sonnets.
Form and Language
Sonnet 2 moves from the language of war to the language of money, and ends in the plain language of the body.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The couplet’s rhyme, “old” and “cold,” pairs age with loss of warmth, while the lines themselves hold out the child’s warmth against it.
The Siege
“Besiege,” “dig deep trenches,” and “field” make the face a battlefield. The trenches are both earthworks dug by an army and furrows in skin, and the double image lets the reader see the wrinkles forming as the siege goes on.
“Proud Livery” and “Tattered Weed”
Livery was the uniform worn by a great household’s servants, a sign of belonging and display. “Weed” meant a garment. The young man’s beauty is pictured as fine clothing now, and a ragged old coat later. The 1609 text prints “totter’d,” an old spelling of “tattered.”
The Imagined Answer
Lines 10 and 11 put words in the young man’s own mouth, in quotation marks: “This fair child of mine / Shall sum my count and make my old excuse.” The speaker writes the answer he wishes the young man could give, which makes the better future feel close enough to speak.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 2 sets up an examination in old age, and the difference between its two answers is the difference between testimony and evidence.
The question is simple: where has all your beauty gone? The first answer is to point inward, to say it lies “within thine own deep-sunken eyes.” That is testimony about oneself, and the poem judges it harshly: “thriftless praise,” praise that earns nothing, because no one can verify it. An old man insisting he was once beautiful is only asking to be believed.
The second answer is a child, and the language changes with it. The child will “sum my count,” settling the account; he will “make my old excuse,” justifying the old man’s wrinkles; and he will be “Proving his beauty by succession thine.” These are the words of an audit and a lawsuit. The child is not a claim but proof, a living document that the beauty existed and was passed on lawfully, “by succession,” as an estate passes to an heir.
Only then, with the case settled, does the poem allow itself warmth. The couplet drops the accountant’s vocabulary entirely: “This were to be new made when thou art old, / And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.” The proof, it turns out, is also a comfort. The poem’s deepest suggestion is that the young man will need both, someone who can vouch for who he was, and someone in whom he can feel it still.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 2, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 2 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 Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow” Mean?
When forty years have attacked your forehead. The line pictures age as an army laying siege, with the passing winters as the attackers and the wrinkles as their trenches.
What Does “Shall Sum My Count and Make My Old Excuse” Mean?
Will balance my account and justify my old age. The child proves that the father’s beauty was not wasted, so he need not apologize for having grown old.
What Does “Thy Youth’s Proud Livery” Mean?
The fine uniform of your youth. Livery was the uniform worn by a great household’s servants, and the phrase pictures the young man’s beauty as splendid clothing that age will turn into rags.
How Is Sonnet 2 Different from Sonnet 1?
Sonnet 1 argues in general terms that beauty should be passed on. Sonnet 2 shows the young man a specific future, forty years on, and lets him feel the shame of being asked where his beauty went.
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets frame Sonnet 2’s picture of age and inheritance.