Sonnet 106, also known as ‘When in the chronicle of wasted time‘, is part of William Shakespeare’s collection of 154 sonnets, which were first published in a 1609 quarto. This sonnet is part of the Fair Youth sequence, including sonnets 1-126 that focus on the speaker’s infatuation with the Fair Youth as they praise his beauty, convince him to procreate, and try to immortalize him through art while delving into the themes of time, memory, transience, immortality, aging, beauty, betrayal, love, and change.
Like the rest of the poems in the 154 sonnet collection, ‘Sonnet 106′ has three quatrains (stanzas with four lines) and a final couplet (two lines). It is written in iambic pentameter, as most of Shakespeare’s plays are, and features an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme.
Your browser does not support the audio element.Sonnet 106 William Shakespeare
Summary
The poem begins with the speaker telling about what they see in the old poetry before they connect it with the Fair Youth.
In the first quatrain the speaker tells that in “chronicle of wasted time,” meaning records of the past, here, old poetry, they find the descriptions of the most beautiful people (“fairest wights”), and see that the beauty likely the beauty of “fairest wights” is beautifying the poetry itself which is written in praise of dead ladies and knights.
In the second quatrain, the speaker details the blazon of beauty found in old poetry, describing “sweet beauty’s best,” meaning the finest of the beauty “Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,” which makes the speaker contemplate that the “antique pen” meaning the old poets “would have express’d” the beauty possessed by the Fair Youth now.
The third quatrain in line nine marks the volta, revealing that all the praises of the beauty described by ancient poets are mere prophecies of the present time, “prefiguring” the Fair Youth whom they saw “with divining eyes.” However, because old poets saw the Fair Youth through divine vision and not directly, they could not accurately describe his beauty or, as the speaker states, did not have the “skill enough” to sing his true worth.
In the final couplet, there is a concluding turn, seemingly a resolution or closure, as the speaker implies a conclusion that the true beauty of the Fair Youth can never be described in poetry. He states that the present-day poets, including himself, who behold the Fair Youth directly lack the skill to express his beauty as they have their eyes in wonder but “lack tongues,” meaning poetic talent to articulate.
Literary Devices
‘Sonnet 106‘ employs the classic literary device called blazon, which emerged during the medieval era, popularized by Petrarchan sonnets, and was widely used in Renaissance poetry. A balzon lists or catalogues the body parts such as eyes, lips, hands, cheeks, hair, etc., usually of the beloved, to praise the physical beauty, precisely the physical features. The speaker refers to a blazon in the second quatrain, lines five and six, telling about the finest beauty expressed in old poetry, alluding to the literary tradition that used blazon to articulate beauty with nuance.
This sonnet exemplifies the subtle wit of Shakespeare in the last line, employing irony, telling that though the present-day poets have their eyes in awe looking at the Fair Youth’s beauty directly, they “lack tongues to praise,” i.e., poetic talent. Poets who should be the masters of words or language lack the skills to articulate the Fair Youth’s beauty and merely wonder at it. Thus, after years of evolution, modern or present-day poets lack the skill and poetic talent of the ancients, who would have entirely captured the Fair Youth’s beauty if they were alive and could see him directly, rather than through divine visions.
The sonnet also uses alliteration and enjambment to draw emphasis, add flow, and musicality, complementing the rhyme and rhythm. See Poem Form, Meter, and Rhyme in Poetry+ Review Corner for more.
Detailed Analysis
Lines 1-4
When in the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,
The first four lines introduce that the speaker is looking at the descriptions of beauty in the “chronicle of wasted time.” The next quatrain reveals that the speaker is discussing old poetry while referring to these chronicles of the past. The speaker says that they see the “descriptions of the fairest wights.” “Wight” means a creature or a person of a specific kind; thus, the speaker is likely looking at the most beautiful people among many other beautiful people. They also reveal that the described beauty belongs to dead ladies and knights who were revered figures of high values, such as beauty, honor, and gentility, often found in medieval literature.
Notably, the speaker subtly alludes to the beauty’s power as the descriptions of the beauty (possessed by ladies and knights) make the old rhyme “beautiful.”
Lines 5-8
Then in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their ántique pen would have expressed
Ev’n such a beauty as you master now.
In this quatrain, the speaker gives further details of the beauty described in old poetry by referring to “the blazon” (see Literary Devices). The beauty described seems physical, as the physical features like hand, foot, lip, eye, and brow make up the blazon of the best beauty.
The speaker also discovers the similarity between the Fair Youth and the beauty described in old poetry, as they claim that the ancient poets would have also expressed the Fair Youth’s beauty after studying the ancient poetry. Thus, the speaker establishes a continuity between the past and present while implying the beauty’s immortality through poetry and the Fair Youth, even though the people who possessed it in the past are dead.
Lines 9-12
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring,
And for they looked but with divining eyes,
They had not skill enough your worth to sing.
The third quatrain, precisely in line 9, like a classic Petrarchan sonnet, takes the turn and shifts the poem’s focus from beauty to the Fair Youth as the speaker presents his argument, claiming all the descriptions of the beauty in the past are nothing but prohecies, prefiguring the Fair Youth or the beauty possessed by him. They further claim that the ancient poets looked with divining eyes, and that is why they couldn’t have had enough skill to properly express the “worth” of the Fair Youth’s beauty.
Here, the speaker associates the ancient poets with “divining eyes,” elevating the stature of poets as seers connected with cosmic powers. Furthermore, the Fair Youth and his beauty are also elevated and connected to something extraordinary as they were being revealed through divine visions to the ancient poets.
Lines 13-14
For we which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
In the final couplet, the speaker says that the present-day poets, including themselves, too, cannot express or articulate the Fair Youth’s beauty. Though they behold it directly, unlike the ancient poets who saw this beauty through divine eyes, they lack “tongues to praise,” implying a lack of poetic talent or maybe also elevating the ancient poets above them as they might have expressed the Fair Youth’s beauty had they seen it directly.
Furthermore, the final couplet subtly offers the final resolution as the speaker concludes the ineffability of the Fair Youth’s extraordinary beauty, further elevating them, which in turn reflects the speaker’s own infatuation and obsession with the Fair Youth and his beauty.
