SONNET 12 by William Shakespeare

1 When I do count the clock that tells the time,

2 And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
3 When I behold the violet past prime,
4 And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white;
5 When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
6 Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
7 And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
8 Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
9 Then of thy beauty do I question make,
10 That thou among the wastes of time must go,
11 Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
12 And die as fast as they see others grow;
13   And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
14 Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

Notes

count (1): count the chimes.

hideous (2): The meaning here is closer to dread. Thus we have a balanced antithesis in brave/day and
hideous/night.
prime (3): peak; also a continuation of the extended time metaphor as prime was the first hour of the day, usually
6 a.m. or the hour of sunrise (OED).
sable (4): darkest brown. Note the color imagery -- violet, sable, green, silver, white.
all silver'd o'er (4): gray
canopy (6): shelter.
erst (6): formerly.
summer's green (7): Shakespeare here uses a literary device known as synecdoche (by which a specific part is
taken for the whole); thus summer's green is the bounty of crops.
girded up (7): tied up tightly (the first use of the term as such in English).
bier (8): a moveable frame on which a coffin or a corpse is placed before burial; or on which a corpse is carried to
the grave.
And...beard (8-9): One of the most striking metaphors in the sonnets. The harvested crops, carried on the bier,
wrapped tightly with protruding pale hulls, are personified as the body of an old man, carried on a cart or wagon to
church, wrapped tightly in his shroud, with his protruding white beard.
breed (14): children.
brave (14): challenge.

“Death, be not proud” from the Holy Sonnets

By John Donne
_____ Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
_____ Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
_____ For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
_____ Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
_____ From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
_____ Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
_____ And soonest our best men with thee do go,
_____ Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
_____ Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
_____ And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
_____ And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
_____ And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
_____ One short sleep past, we wake eternally
_____ And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Notes

thee / thou (1, 2): pretend it says YOU.

dost / canst (3, 4) : pretend the “-st” in the words isn’t there.
desperate (9): means suicidal here.
dwell (10): to live with
poppy (11): reference to opium or sedatives
eternally (13): forever