Sonnet LV

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lover's eyes.

Traditional interpretation

For the English scholars this follows the familiar theme – the poet attempting to keep the love of his friend (the youth) alive forever through the lines of his verse. Johnson states that Bacon wrote these sonnets in praise of the God Apollo (Greek Sun God and patron of poetry). He also cites the following statement from the writings of Francis Bacon as evidence that Bacon was the real author of the sonnets, as it closely parallels the thoughts and words of this sonnet: “The monuments of wit will survive the monuments of power: the verses of the poet endure without a syllable lost, while state and empires pass many periods”.

Elucidation

The scholars seem to have already forgotten the subject matter of sonnet 53. This sonnet is a bold tribute in praise of that eternal youthful creative energy of God (The Fool in the Tarot cards , Kali in Hindu mythology, etc.) – constant, eternal and ever loving. The sonnet is saying that the most enduring of man-made creations such as stone statues inlaid with gold (a metal that does not rust or degrade with time) are outlasted by verses written on paper. The eternal youthful energy of The Fool / Shakti / Kali, is everlasting. How can this sonnet be addressed to a youth when the second to last line states: “till the judgement that yourself arise”? Is Shakespeare’s youthful friend responsible for laying down universal judgement; or is God? When one looks upon a statue of the Black Madonna, one of the emotions evoked is love – love of the deity, and awareness of love by this eternal life force for everything in creation. This love is precisely what dwells in lover’s eyes.