Poetry

How Long Will You Last in a Fight With Time?

Shakespeare Says You Must Find Eternity (Sonnet 15)

1

When I consider every thing that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment,

“When I consider every living thing only holds perfection for a little while”.

Isn’t this true of many things?

Our favourite plants blossom for a while, but not all the year. When you forget to water your flatmate’s plants, they wither (and your flatmate gets annoyed).

The birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, and us humans thrive, but soon we’re past our prime.

2

That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;

“When I consider that this wide world is like a theatre stage, on which the stars decide people’s fate.”

The world is like a stage. Or as Shakespeare puts it in his play As You Like It (II.7):

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances

After a performance, the curtains roll back down, the audience leaves, and the play becomes just a distant memory.

What’s more, people in the world are helpless. They’re subject to the power of fate. No one knows what may happen.

Whether good fortune or bad events, the next thing is only a heartbeat away.

3

When I perceive that men as plants increase, Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,

“When I see that people grow and multiply like plants, by the sky that regulates both people and plants.”

People hold perfection briefly, appear briefly, but are also not that different from plants.

They live under the same sky, regulated by the same climate laws, and face the same fate.

4

Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease, And wear their brave state out of memory;

“People (like plants) show off their youthful vigour, but fall from their height one day, and wear away in their proudest moment, unremembered.”

I recall a dramatic moment of a Caesar as recorded in the Book of Acts, which Shakespeare well knew:

On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

People don’t think about the Roman Empire nowadays. And even if they do (if you get the reference, well done), the caesars are largely unthought of.

5

Then the conceit of this inconstant stay Sets you most rich in youth before my sight, Where wasteful Time debateth with decay To change your day of youth to sullied night,

“Then suddenly, the consideration of life’s brevity puts you in the youngest, richest light in my eyes. But it is while time and death conspire together to change your day of youth to dingy night.”

Shakespeare suddenly sees his young friend as a victim of death. Before these thoughts came to him, his friend just like any other person — living and breathing, everything was fine. But the thoughts of how fleeting people are made him startle and jump.

Time and decay are both seen as plotting, evil individuals who plan to snatch people away in their prime, or shortly after.

6

And all in war with Time for love of you, As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

“I’m in all-out war with time to keep you here because of my love. But even as time takes you away, I plant you anew in my poetry.”

Shakespeare’s solution to his friend’s mortality is to put it in words. Thoughts fly, flesh decays, and time snatches us away. But words written are bound to stay.

Shakespeare didn’t write to us. But he makes us ponder: How will we fare in the battle with wicked Time? What resources do we own, what recourses do we have?

The thought that words remain is steeped in the Christianity that Shakespeare was familiar with.

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

— Saint Matthew.

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

— Saint Peter.

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” — Saint Peter.

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