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HERBERT SONNET NO.16        But wherefore do not you  a mightier way,      Make war upon this bloody tyrant time?      And fortify yourself  in your decay,      With means more blessed than my barren  rhyme?      Now stand you  on the top of happy hours,      And many maiden gardens yet unsett,      With virtuous wish-would bear your  living flowers,      Much liker   than your  painted counterfeit:      So should the lines of life  that life  repair,      Which this (times pencil or my pupil pen),      Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,      Can make you  live yourself  in eyes of men,      To give away your self, keeps your  self  still,      And you  must live drawn by your  own sweet skill.

 

•  
  Note the repetition of the following words, we find-yourself,
  yourself, yourself, yourself, your, your, your, your, you, you,
  you, you (see 13).
  
  8th Line.    " Counterfeit" here means portrait.
  9th Line.    " The lines of life "-the features of his children.
  11th Line.   Fair means beauty.
  
  Here Bacon tells Herbert to make war against time and fortify
  (strengthen) himself in his decay (old age) by means more
  blessed than Bacon's barren  verses.  He tells Herbert that he
  is now in his prime (on the top of happy hours) and that any
  maiden being a virgin (yet unset) would if he wished be willing
  to have children by him and so repair (restore) his life which
  cannot be done by time or his (Bacon's) pen, neither of which
  can make Herbert himself live in the eyes of other people-that
  he must keep himself still (constant) and so live drawn (pulled
  together) by his own skill (reason).
  
    Compare this sonnet with Sonnet No. 64, where he again
  refers to time  the destroyer.
  
  
   
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