Table of Contents / Related Topics
www.sirbacon.org
Herbert
SONNET NO. 12 When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night,
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls or silver'd ore with white :
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summers green all girded up in sheaves,
Born on the bier with white and bristly beard:
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
And thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow,
And nothing `gainst time's scythe can make defence,
Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence.
Note
the repetition of the following words, we find-when,
when, when, and,
and, and, and, and, and, white, white, time,
time, time.
Here
Bacon tells Herbert than when he (Bacon) sees time
turning day into
night-the violets dying-the trees now barren
of leaves which
before winter comes had sheltered the cattle
from the heat of
the sun and the harvest gathered-that when he
thinks of these
things he questions Herbert's beauty and that
Herbert in due
course of time must die, since beautiful things
die as fast as
they see others grow and that there is no defence
against death
(times scythe) except breed (offspring) to brave
(defy) time when
Herbert dies (time takes thee hence).