Sonnet 77
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
time
memory
writing
aging
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;
The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning mayst thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory;
Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know
Time's thievish progress to eternity.
Look, what thy memory can not contain
Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, deliver'd from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.
What It Means
A contemplative sonnet about a mirror, a clock, and a commonplace book. Each instrument teaches a different lesson about time: your face shows you aging, the clock shows time passing, the notebook records your thoughts before they fade. Shakespeare gives this gift — perhaps an actual blank book accompanying the poem. Fill it. The thoughts you write down today will be old friends when you read them back later.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence. Often thought to have accompanied a gift of a blank book. The contemplative tone makes it one of the less dramatic sonnets.
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