Sonnet 123
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:
time
constancy
change
memory
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:
Thy pyramids built up with newer might
To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;
They are but dressings of a former sight.
Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old,
And rather make them born to our desire
Than think that we before have heard them told.
Thy registers and thee I both defy,
Not wondering at the present nor the past,
For thy records and what we see doth lie,
Made more or less by thy continual haste.
This I do vow and this shall ever be;
I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.
What It Means
Shakespeare refuses to let time take credit for change. The 'pyramids' built new seem old to him — nothing time creates is truly new. He has seen records and wonders before. He won't say that what seems new is new. He vows constancy against time's claim that everything changes.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence. The reference to pyramids is possibly a reference to Elizabethan pageantry or to ancient Egyptian monuments.
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