SONNETS 106-117
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Sonnet 106
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,
Then in the blazon of sweet beauty�s best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique Pen would have expressed,
Even such a beauty as you master now.
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 still enough your worth to sing:
For we which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
Sonnet 106 addresses the relation between the �beauty� of the youth and the
limited ability of words to represent his �worth�. The full �beauty� of life, the
myriad of sensations and singular ideas, can only be hinted at in poetry. This
is a constant theme throughout the 154 sonnets. They argue for the priority
of the physical world over the world represented in books.
In sonnet 106, the Poet reads the �Chronicle of wasted time� (106.1) and
imagines the �beauty� of �Ladies dead, and lovely Knights� (106.4) of times
gone by. Their �beauty� inspired antique poets to write �beautiful rhyme�.
But the Chronicle cannot record the �worth� of the complete person when
it transmutes their external beauty into �beautiful old rhyme� (106.3).
The Poet can see how �even such a beauty�, which the youth �masters
now� (106.8), would be reduced to mere words by �antique Pens� (106.7).
When he looks at the words arranged on the page, such as �hand, foot, lips,
eye, and brow� (106.6) they seem like the emblems blazed on (106.5) a coat
of arms or similar device.
All the �praises� of the poets of old are but �prophecies of this our time�
(106.10) because, even today, words remain words. Even if they looked with
�divining eyes� they would still not be able to say enough to �sing� the youth�s
real �worth� (106.12). A Chronicle can only create a word image of how
things were then or how things are now. The process of physical increase
down the generations that connects the �worth� of those days with the
�worth� of the youth �now� cannot be captured in words.
In the couplet, �we� who are alive �now� can use our �eyes to wonder� at
the full potential of the living youth. Such potential cannot be adequately
put into words because we �lack tongues to praise� its living �worth�. In
Hamlet, Shakespeare famously addresses the inadequacy of �words, words,
words� because they are secondary to the dynamic of life.
In previous sonnets the words �Pen�, �tongue�, �eyes�, have doubled as
sexual puns. With these puns Shakespeare evokes the physical dimension
mere words lack. He cannot emulate the physical process of life with words
but he can use puns to suggest its �worth�. The puns are also a warning for
those who wish to misread the Sonnets. Yet editors persist in making changes
to words that do not conform to their preferred reading of the youth as an
ideal beauty. They revert to an early version of sonnet 106 (from before
1599) that had �skill� in line 12. They reject Shakespeare�s more precise
meaning for the 1609 edition that, whatever words evoke, they �still� cannot
replace the youth�s natural worth.
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Roger Peters Copyright © 2001
Introduction
1-9
10-21
22-33
34-45
46-57
58-69
70-81
82-93
94-105
106-117
118-129
130-141
142-153
154
Emendations
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