Posted by Bob on October 05, 2003
In Reply to: Re: Shakespeare posted by R. Berg on October 04, 2003
: : In the poem "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
: : What exactly is shakesphere saying in the phrase:
: : "Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st"
: : Sorry, I am Old english illiterate. Thanks for any help you can give.
: Shakespeare wrote in early modern English.
: The meaning isn't perfectly clear to me, either. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of "You're not getting older, you're getting better."
Death (personified) will never be able to say with pride that you are in his domain, because you are immortal now that I have written this poem ("lines to time") about you.
And Shakepeare was right of course. This sonnet is eternal. Some of us have it memorized 400 years later, and the subject of his poem is, now, immortal. Check out the last line to see it summed up.