by William Shakespeare
QUICK SUMMARY
Sonnet 55 declares that poetry outlasts monuments, war, and time. Shakespeare promises the beloved immortality through verse, turning the poem itself into a monument stronger than stone.
Full Poem: Sonnet 55 (1609)
When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor’d youth,
Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppress’d.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told:
* Therefore I lie with her and she with me,*
* And in our faults by lies we flatter’d be.*
Originally published in the 1609 Quarto (1609) by William Shakespeare. Public domain.
Analysis
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55 is a bold assertion about the enduring power of literature. Rather than presenting love as fleeting or fragile, he elevates the beloved to a place of permanence through poetry. The poem becomes both a tribute and a prophecy — a statement that written words will triumph over the destructive forces that erase human history.
Poetry Versus Physical Monuments
The sonnet opens with a sweeping comparison: marble and gilded monuments, symbols of political power and wealth, will eventually crumble. Time defaces stone, battles shatter statues, and even the greatest monuments fall to ruin. Shakespeare uses these images to illustrate the fragility of physical memorials. They may seem strong, but they are vulnerable to weather, war, and neglect.
Against this fragility stands the poem — an intangible creation that paradoxically proves more durable than structures made from stone. Unlike monuments tied to a specific place, poetry can be copied, read, and carried across centuries. Shakespeare implicitly argues that art, not architecture, creates true immortality.
War As an Agent of Destruction
Lines describing “wasteful war” and “war’s quick fire” remind readers that political conflict is one of the most destructive forces in human civilization. Statues can be torn down, palaces burned, and kingdoms erased. Yet the poem frames war as powerless against memory preserved in verse. Even Mars, the god of war, cannot destroy the “living record” contained in poetry.
This framing elevates artistic creation above divine and military power. Shakespeare suggests that poetry preserves what even gods cannot protect.
The beloved in the eyes of posterity
The poem imagines a future in which the beloved continues to “pace forth” through time, walking beyond death and oblivion. This continuation does not depend on physical survival but on continual remembrance. Every time the poem is read, the beloved lives again.
Shakespeare’s use of the phrase “eyes of all posterity” suggests generations of readers, not just a private audience. The beloved becomes part of cultural memory — a figure sustained by the ongoing act of reading.
The Triumphant Final Couplet
The closing lines famously assert:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The repetition of “this” ties the beloved’s life directly to the poem itself. The couplet has a paradoxical beauty: although the beloved may be mortal, the poem is not. As long as human civilization survives, so does the beloved. The poem becomes an act of resurrection repeated across centuries.
The Sonnet As a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Sonnet 55 is remarkable because Shakespeare’s prediction came true. More than 400 years later, the beloved remains alive through these lines. The poem functions simultaneously as art, argument, and achievement — a monument built from language and preserved by memory.