Sonnet 7 claims that the world adores the young man only as the crowd adores the rising sun, and that once he passes his noon, every eye will turn away unless he has a son to rise in his place.
Sonnet 7: Full Poem
Lo, in the orient when the gracious light
Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
Doth homage to his new-appearing sight,
Serving with looks his sacred majesty;
And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill,
Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
Attending on his golden pilgrimage;
But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,
Like feeble age he reeleth from the day,
The eyes, ’fore duteous, now converted are
From his low tract and look another way:
So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon,
Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 7 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 7 Means
Sonnet 7 follows the sun across a single day and uses its journey to warn the young man about how the world’s attention works.
The first quatrain shows sunrise. When the glorious sun lifts its burning head in the east, every eye below pays homage to it, serving its sacred majesty with looks, like subjects before a king.
The second quatrain shows the sun at its height. Having climbed the steep hill of the sky, it looks like a strong young man in the prime of life, and people still gaze at its beauty, following its golden journey.
The third quatrain turns. When the sun, like a weary old man in his chariot, begins to reel down from its highest point, the eyes that were so devoted before turn away from its low path and look somewhere else.
The couplet applies the lesson. The young man is already passing his noon. He will die with no one looking at him, unless he has a son, a new sun to draw the world’s eyes.
Sonnet 7 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 7 changes the Procreation Sonnets’ argument from beauty to attention, and its themes follow from that shift.
The Sun as King
The rising sun is a monarch: it has “sacred majesty,” receives “homage,” and is served by every “under eye,” a phrase that suggests both people standing beneath the sky and subjects beneath a throne. The young man, beautiful and admired, is pictured as that kind of king, and the poem warns that his court is not loyal.
Attention That Follows the Rise
The crowd’s devotion lasts only while the sun is climbing. At noon the eyes still “adore his beauty,” but as soon as he starts to fall, the same eyes, “’fore duteous,” turn away. Nothing about the sun has changed except its direction. The poem’s point is cold and accurate: admiration goes to what is rising, not to what is admirable.
The Son as a New Dawn
Against a day that runs one way, the couplet offers one escape. A son begins the cycle again, a new sunrise that will draw the looks the father loses. Earlier Procreation Sonnets pictured the child as a copy, a mirror, or a vial; Sonnet 6 made him interest on a loan. Sonnet 7 makes him the next dawn.
Form and Language
Sonnet 7 sustains a single image for twelve lines, then collapses it into one word.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Each part of the structure matches a part of the day: the first quatrain is sunrise, the second is noon, the third is sunset, and the couplet brings the whole day down onto the young man.
One Extended Metaphor
The young man is not mentioned until line 13. For twelve lines the poem talks only about the sun, but every detail, the “burning head,” the “strong youth in his middle age,” the “feeble age” that “reeleth,” describes a human life. By the time “thou” arrives, the comparison has already done its work.
The “Weary Car”
In classical myth the sun god drove a chariot across the sky each day. The “weary car” of line 9 is that chariot at the end of its run, and the phrase turns the evening sun into a tired old driver reeling home.
Sun and Son
The last word of the poem is “son,” and every reader hears “sun.” The pun gathers the whole extended metaphor into a single syllable: the sun that sets and the son who must be born become the same word, and the second is the only answer to the first.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 7 is a poem about looking, and the one pair of eyes that never turns away from the setting sun belongs to the speaker.
Count the words for sight. “Each under eye,” “his new-appearing sight,” “Serving with looks,” “mortal looks adore,” “The eyes,” “look another way,” and finally “Unlooked on.” The poem measures a life not in years or deeds but in how many people are watching. At dawn, everyone. At noon, still everyone. At dusk, no one. The worst fate it can imagine is not death but dying “unlooked on.”
Yet someone does keep watching all day. The poem itself follows the sun from its first appearance to its “low tract,” describing the fall that the crowd refuses to see. The speaker is the one observer who does not “look another way.” He tells the young man that the world’s attention is fickle while offering, in the act of telling, attention that is not.
Officially, the poem’s solution is a son. But the poem demonstrates a second one. A sonnet can watch the whole day, noon and sunset alike, and keep its eyes on the young man when others have turned away. That quiet alternative becomes the speaker’s open claim later in the sequence, in poems like Sonnet 18, and in Sonnet 73 the roles reverse: there, it is the speaker who is setting, and he asks the young man to keep looking.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 7, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 7 Addressed To?
The young man of the Fair Youth sonnets, though he is not addressed until the couplet. The first twelve lines describe only the sun.
What Does “Unlooked On Diest” Mean?
You will die with no one looking at you. Once the young man’s beauty declines, the admirers who watched him will turn away, and he will die ignored.
What Is the Pun in the Last Line?
“Son” sounds like “sun.” The poem has described the sun rising and setting, and it ends by telling the young man that only a son can be his new sunrise.
What Does “Each Under Eye” Mean?
Every eye below, meaning everyone on earth looking up at the sun. It also suggests social inferiors looking up at a king, which fits the poem’s picture of the sun as a monarch.
What Is the “Weary Car”?
The sun’s chariot. In classical myth the sun god drove a chariot across the sky, and by evening, in line 9, it is weary and descending.
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets frame Sonnet 7’s images of rising, setting, and being seen.