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Andrew Culver
Dr. Taufer
English 560

Sonnet 67: An Explication

1 Ah wherefore with infection should he live,

2 And with his presence grace impiety,
3 That sin by him advantage should achieve,
4 And lace itself with his society?
5 Why should false painting imitate his cheek,
6 And steal dead seeing of his living hue?
7 Why should poor beauty indirectly seek
8 Roses of shadow, since his rose is true?
9 Why should he live, now nature bankrout is,
10 Beggared of blood to blush through lively veins?
11 For she hath no exchequer now but his,
12 And, proud of many, lives upon his gains.
13 O him she stores, to show what wealth she had,
14 In days long since, before these last so bad.

Sonnet 67 contrasts the beauty of art and nature with the beauty of the young man, asking

a series of rhetorical questions concerning the idea that art, nature and beauty itself merely copy

him. The sonnet positions the young man as the source of all authentic beauty in the world. This

hyperbole is the central conceit of the poem. Underlying the poem, as seen in the first quatrain, is

the anxiety that the young man will waste his time with disreputable people, thus validating them

and giving them social advantages. This resonates with the poet’s condescending attitude

towards the young man as beautiful but naive, an attitude that can be found throughout the

sonnets. The sonnet, in the final two lines, touches on a theme also found elsewhere, not only

throughout the sonnets but in other poetry of Shakespeare’s era: the elusive Golden Age of

nature, before she was soiled. Nature is personified as a greedy, ugly old woman that steals

beauty from this young man to use almost like make-up, to remind us all of how she once

appeared.
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The first quatrain consists of the first of four questions, and is more clearly separated

from the succeeding quatrains than they are from each other. The quatrain asks why, how, or for

what cause, the young man should (possibly meaning would in this case) soil his beauty by

flirting with “infection,” which is aligned with “sin.” The quatrain expresses an anxiety that sin

would use the young man’s implied reputation and purity to gain a foothold in his “society,”

which is loaded with implications. In Shakespeare’s day “society” could have meant, among

other things, the simple “companionship, fellowship, or company” of the young man, or “a small

group of people, a company,” according to the OED. The latter definition resonates with other

sonnets, in which the speaker expresses fears of the young man being seduced by the flattery of

sycophants who don’t really love him.

The first quatrain uses alliteration, with the repetition in the first line of “w” sounds in the

words “wherefore” and “with”. Repetition is employed in the word “with,” which is used in the

phrases “with infection,” “with his presence,” and “with his society.” The use of “with”

contributes to the speaker’s general obsession with the young man’s relationships. Anaphora is

employed in the repetition of the word “And” in the second and fourth lines, which begins a

pattern of anaphora throughout the poem. Assonance is used throughout the quatrain: in the first

line the “i” vowel is repeated in the words “with” and “live.” In the second line “with his”

repeats the assonance, and in the third line “sin by him” repeats it once more. Consonance is

evident in the “v” sounds of “advantage” and “achieve.” The “s” sound is repeated in line four,

in the words “lace,” “itself,” and “society.” The assonance, anaphora, and repetition begin

patterns that create echoes and links between the poem’s separate parts, which are otherwise very

distinct from each other. Because of these devices the sonnet becomes a unified, cohesive piece.

The second quatrain begins a pattern of questions that link it with the third quatrain and

with the couplet, thereby isolating the first quatrain. Beginning with the first of five forceful
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trochees, the speaker asks why beauty and art would imitate the young man, since his beauty will

always be more authentic. Assonance is apparent in the repeated “a” sounds in “painting

imitate,” which links it with “lace” in the fourth line. The word “cheek” is the poem’s one and

only use of synecdoche, in which the youth’s cheek stands in for the youth himself. Lines 5 and 6

are syntactically difficult, mainly because of the strange construction “steal dead seeing of his

living hue.” False painting is the subject of the sentence, which takes the object of “cheek”; but

in the dependent clause “and steal dead seeing of his living hue,” we are presented with some

confusion. What is the object of “steal”? It could be “seeing,” which would give the sentence the

meaning that false painting will steal dead (an adverb, as in rob me blind) the possibility of

seeing the young man’s living hue. This would give the implication that false painting can steal

the young man’s beauty, or at least the seeing of it, by imitating it. This would also serve to

contrast “steal dead” with the “living hue,” which is a verb adverb/adjective noun construction,

yet works as a subtle play of opposites.

The speaker asks “Why should poor beauty indirectly seek/ Roses of shadow, since his

rose is true?” This is fairly straightforward. Why would beauty seek indirect shadows of “roses,”

which signify aesthetic attraction, when it is clear that the young man is the only source of

authentic beauty and attraction? These two lines employ enjambment craftily, with the word

“seek” causing the reader to feel a sense of movement onto the next line. Polyptoton is used in

the words “roses” and “rose”, contrasting a pluralistic vision of many roses with the one true rose

which comes from him.

The third quatrain is linked to the second quite strongly, since it repeats the “Why

should…” refrain seen in lines 5 and 7. It is notable that anaphora is used incrementally in the

sonnet. “And” is the beginning of lines 2, 4, 6, and 12, while “Why should” begins lines 5, 7, and

9. The incremental spacing out of anaphora contributes to its subtlety and unobtrusiveness, and
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yet there is an effect of repeated questioning and imploring. The imploring nature of these effects

gives the sonnet a feeling of urgency and anxiety concerning the young man, who is constantly

threatened by a predatory world surrounding him. These effects also serve to present the sonnet

as a cohesive whole, whose parts are inextricably connected and entangled.

The syntax is subtle and difficult in lines 9 and 10. The main question is the participial

phrase “beggared of blood to blush through lively veins” – what does this phrase modify? Is the

speaker asking “Why should he live…beggared of blood to blush through lively veins, now that

nature is bankrupt” ? Or is the speaker asking “Why should he live…now that nature is bankrupt

and beggared of blood to blush through lively veins”? Upon inspection the former sentence

makes more sense. Following the anxiety of the poem, we will see that the speaker asks why

nature should steal his beauty just because she is bankrupt of it. The polyptoton involving “live”

and “lively” connects the two lines and energizes the second line after the claustrophobic triple

alliteration of “beggared,” “blood,” and “blush.” The phrase “lively veins” alleviates the difficult

pronunciation of “Beggared of blood to blush” by bringing in the easy l, v, i, e, n, and s sounds.

Line 11 ends the questioning sequence in the middle of the quatrain by making a

statement characterizing nature as a kind of vampiric force that feeds off of the young man’s

beauty. “She hath no exchequer now but his,” the speaker states, using the figurative

“exchequer,” and alluding, as is common in the sonnets, to the world of finance. The difficulty of

line 12 is the phrase “proud of many” – what does this mean? The most probably answer is that

nature, enriched by so many of his gains, is “proud of many.” The strange syntax causes us to

move forward in the line to see what “many” refers to, and it turns out to be his gains. Nature is

made proud, possibly arrogant, by living off of his wealth of beauty.

The couplet links directly to lines 11 and 12, causing us to see lines 11-14 as a new

quatrain. These two lines continue the statement of 12-13 with a new, similar claim about nature.
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Not only is nature keeping him to live off his beauty, but she uses him to show her former glory

in some golden age. This is the final reason for nature’s greed – the young man is a remnant of

her mythical, possibly prelapsarian past.