Crosman, Robert. “Making Love out of Nothing at All:
The Issue of Story in Shakespeare’s Procreation Son-
nets.” SQ, no. 4 (1990): 470–488.
Miller, Naomi J. “Playing the ‘Mother’s Part’: Shakespeare’s
Sonnets and Early Modern Codes of Maternity.” In
Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Critical Essays, edited by James
Schiffer, 347–347. New York and London: Garland,
1999.
Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 12 (“When I do
count the clock that tells the time”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) This SONNET, part of WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE’s procreation sonnet set, is organized into
two sections by its rhyme and its content, and although
it follows the standard ENGLISH SONNET form of three
quatrains followed by a COUPLET, its syntax is more
true to the ITALIAN (PETRARCHAN) SONNET structure.
The fi rst dozen lines, with three sets of alternative
rhymes, establish that the speaker is worried about
time and death. Indeed, this is the fi rst sonnet in
which the subject pronoun I governs the action. The
last two lines give an answer, though it may not be
seem very romantic. The speaker fi nds neither a spiri-
tual nor an emotional answer; only creating new life
can challenge time. Repetition of images of time and
ALLITERATION within the lines unifi es the sonnet into a
cohesive message.
The fi rst quatrain uses many images of ominous col-
ors and different parts of the day to express the speak-
er’s feeling about the incessant movement of time. In
line 1, the speaker says that he “counts the clock.” But
since a single clock is counted only once, the implied
repetition creates a feeling of being trapped within
time. In the second line, the speaker uses two images
that are counterpoints, contrasting the “brave day”
with its bright impression to the “hideous night,” an
evil dark image. We learn that the day has “sunk,” an
active verb that also describes the sun’s action at twi-
light. Overall, we see the progression of an entire day
from joy to horror, which echoes in later sections.
Lines 3 and 4 emphasize a series of brooding colors—
“violet past prime” probably signifi es twilight, with
prime indicating the ninth hour of the day, and “sable”
recalls the darkness, perhaps with “silvered” stars. Sim-
ilarly, as a man’s life progresses, he begins bravely, but
after his prime he sinks into his twilight years, wherein
his beard contains silver hairs.
The second quatrain continues to rely on images
from nature, but begins to connect them to human-
ity. The “lofty trees... barren of leaves” illustrate the
natural cycle of death. Death’s counterpart is the
promise of the following spring’s rebirth with the
“summer’s green,” particularly noted as wheat. After
the summer, however, the once-green sheaves of
wheat turn brown and are harvested. This image con-
tinues in the sonnet’s clever metaphor found in line
8: “Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard.”
Borne, which means carried or birthed, is followed by
bier, a type of cart used at harvest time but also a
funerary coffi n-stand. The juxtaposition of words
parallels the life/death cycle with the growth and har-
vest of wheat. Extending this image, “the white and
black beards” (l. 8) could be middle-aged male pall-
bearers or the dried husks of the wheat heads. Some
scholars have suggested that this is further reminis-
cent of a funeral procession.
In the fi nal quatrain, there is a major shift in tone as
the speaker begins to use second person with “thy,”
most likely addressing the LOVELY BOY. Line 10 clearly
states, “thou among the wastes of time must go,” mean-
ing there is no escape from decay and death. It is the
speaker’s most deliberate statement yet of the inevita-
bility of death and feeling of absence for the survivors.
Lines 11 and 12 combine into a single, supporting
image of the “sweet and beauties,” which, like fl owers
or crops, must “die” and “see others grow.”
The fi nal turn is in the concluding couplet. Time is
no longer a concept; it is now a proper noun. Its
“scythe” is the long handled and bladed tool used for
harvesting and part of the Grim Reaper’s stereotype,
and to “make defense” is to attempt fi ghting off Time.
Breed literally means to have offspring, or children,
and brave can mean to “deny,” so Time will be denied
only if one reproduces. This connects back to the end
of line 12 when those that pass on “see others grow,”
with the others suggesting a new generation. The
speaker is proposing that their children being born
(and so a possible pun with borne) is the only way to
fi ght against Time and Death’s inevitable march.
See also SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 12 363