Analysis of Sonnet 106

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 four lines talk about chronicles of the past. The lyrical voice mentions
that he/she reads old texts (“When in the chronicle of wasted time”) and
encounters great descriptions “of the fairest wights”. Notice that “wight” is
an old term that refers to “people”. Those depictions that the lyrical voice
reads are of alluring people (“And beauty making beautiful old rhyme”),
such as dead women and knights (“In praise of ladies dead and lovely
knights”). These lines set the scene of the sonnet and serve as an
introduction for the following quatrains.

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.
The next set of lines relates the beauty of the past to the unknown young
man. The lyrical voice realizes that these astounding descriptions (“The in
the blazon of sweet beauty’s best/Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow”)
can be correlated with the beauty of the young man and the possibility to
depict his beauty (“I see their ántique pen would have expressed/Ev’n such
a beauty as you master now”).
These lines express the similarity between the young man’s beauty and the
beauty found in antiquity. The lyrical voice looks back in time in order to
realize that the young man’s beauty could be also found in past stories, as
it is eternal and not ephemeral.

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.
Lines 9 to 12 furthers on the idea of the previous one. The lyrical voice says
that those old chronicles are connected to the young man, as they “are but
prophecies/ Of this our time, all you prefiguring”. The beauty of this
unknown young man surpasses time and place. Nevertheless, the lyrical
voice refers to the incapability of expressing this beauty in writing: “And for
they looked but with divining eyes,/They had not skill enough your worth to
sing”. The beauty of this young man is greatly idealized, as the lyrical voice
suggests that these great writers of the past weren’t able to refer to that
particular beauty (even though they described other great characters).

Lines 13-14
For we which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
The final couplet of Sonnet 106 furthers on the idea of the previous lines.
The past is compared to the present day (“For we which now behold these
present days”), as both past and present can observe the beauty (“Have
eyes to wonder”) but not successfully write about it (“lack tongues to
praise”). The lyrical voice refers to his/her own inability to express and to
talk about the young man’s beauty. Notice that, throughout the sonnet, the
lyrical voice uses straightforward language in order to accentuate the
meaning of his/her words, which is the inability to refer to the young man’s
beauty in his/her writings.

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was baptized in 1564 and died in 1616. He was an
English poet, playwright, and actor. He is known as the greatest writer of
the English language and as the most exceptional dramatist of all times.
Moreover, William Shakespeare is often referred to as England’s National
Poet, and his works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long poems, and other
texts and collaborations. Between 1585 and 1592, William Shakespeare
started a successful career in London as an actor and writer. Also, he was a
part-owner of a company called Lord Chamberlain’s Men. During those
years, Shakespeare wrote most of his famous work. His first plays were
mostly comedies, but his later works were tragedies,
including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, as his most remarkable
plays. William Shakespeare wrote tragedies until 1608, and, after that, he
wrote tragicomedies and collaborations with other writers. In 1613, when
he was 49 years of age, William Shakespeare retired to Stratford. He died
three years later in 1616.

Most of his plays were published during his lifetime. However, they were
printed in a variety of qualities and with several variations. Nevertheless, in
1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, who were Shakespeare’s friends
and colleagues, published a more precise text known as the First Folio. The
First Folio is a collected edition of Shakespeare’s dramatic works that
includes most of the plays recognized as written by Shakespeare. It has a
preface with a poem written by Ben Jonson.
Summary and Analysis Sonnet 106
Summary

Sonnet 106 is addressed to the young man without reference to any particular
event. The poet surveys historical time in order to compare the youth's beauty to
that depicted in art created long ago. Not surprisingly, he argues that no beauty
has ever surpassed his friend's. Admiring historical figures because they remind
him of the youth's character, the poet contends that what earlier artists took for
beauty was merely a foreshadowing of the youth's unsurpassed appearance: "So
all their praises are but prophecies / Of this our time, all you prefiguring."

In the final couplet, the poet compares historical time with the present and finds
that, although he has criticized his forerunners for their lack of definitive
descriptions of beauty, he, too, is unable to describe adequately the young man's
beauty. In lines 11 and 12, he surmises that earlier artisans never would have
been able to do artistic justice to the young man: "And, for they looked but with
divining eyes, / They had not still enough your worth to sing." However, he
admits in the sonnet's last two lines that he doesn't have the necessary skills
either: "For we, which now behold these present days, / Had eyes to wonder, but
lack tongues to praise." Note the parallel imagery in the sonnet's last four lines,
in which the past and the present are contrasted: "Eyes" are capable of viewing
the youth's beauty, but previous artisans didn't have the skill "to sing" about the
young man, and neither has the poet the skill "to praise" him adequately.

Sonnet 106 is another poem addressed to the Fair Youth,

whose beauty Shakespeare praises. To paraphrase the
meaning of Sonnet 106: ‘When I read descriptions of
beautiful people in old books, people whose beauty
inspired old poems, praising women who are now dead and
handsome knights, I see in such descriptions of these
paragons of beauty that the authors would have gladly
described your beauty. So all of their praise of others is
merely a foreshadowing of your beauty in the present time –
yet although they had the wit to predict your arrival, they
did not have the skill to describe you. For even we poets
who live now at the same time as you can admire your
beauty, but we don’t have the skill to put such beauty into
adequate words.’

In this sonnet, Shakespeare continues this blasphemous

line of praise by casting the Fair Youth as a Christ-like figure,
with these previous paragons of beauty being John the
Baptists who prefigure the Coming of the Saviour.
Shakespeare’s point in the concluding couplet is that even
though he and his contemporaries are fortunate enough to
live at the same time as the Fair Youth, rather than the poets
of old who could merely look forward to the arrival of such a
beautiful human, they still can’t find the words to do such
beauty justice, even though they are able to behold his
beauty with their own eyes.