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Here’s William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65, in full:
Sonnet 65 – “Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea”
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o’ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out
Against the wrackful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time’s best jewel from Time’s chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
Summary / Meaning (Gist-Bullets):
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Everything strong and enduring (brass, stone, sea, earth) eventually succumbs to time and decay.
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If even those powerful things can’t withstand time, how can fragile human beauty?
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The poet wonders if anything can protect beauty from time’s destruction.
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The final couplet reveals the answer: only poetry (black ink) can preserve love and beauty forever.
Would you like me to give you a modern English translation or a line-by-line explanation of this sonnet next?
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