Sonnet 104

SONNET 104
To me, fair friend, you never can be old
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
SUMMARY
The poem is addressed to the Fair Youth, who is
complimented throughout the poem, on his beauty. He
seems not have aged since the speaker has known him.
Over the last 3 years, he has remained as fresh and green
as when they first met. The young man is unnamed.
BUT…
The speaker acknowledges towards the end that he knows

this cannot be the case. All people age and time moves so
slowly that he just cannot see it. The last two lines are
addressed to future generations. He tells them that when
they are alive, the most beautiful person ever to have lived
will already have died.
STRUCTURE
• 14-line sonnet
• 3 quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines)
• Concluding with a rhyming couplet
• Rhyme scheme = ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
• Iambic pentameter
The rhyming couplet usually shifts

perspective
POETIC TECHNIQUES
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Alliteration (sound device)
• Enjambment –
– when a line is cut off before its natural
stopping point
– It forces the reader down to the next line, and
the next, quickly
PARAPHRASE –
MODERN TRANSLATION
To me, my dear friend, you could never be old,

for your beauty seems unchanged from the first time I saw your eyes.
Three cold winters have passed into summer,
and three beautiful springs have become autumns.
In the course of the four seasons.
The perfumed scents of three Aprils burned up in three hot Junes,
Since first I saw you in your youthful prime, and you are still as beautiful and young.
But beauty moves forward continually, imperceptibly, like the hands of a clock.
In the same way, your beauty, which seems unchanged to me,
moves forward, deceiving my eyes.
Out of my fear that you will lose your looks, hear this, you unborn generations:
Before you were born the most beautiful person alive had been in their prime.
esses the Fair Youth to whom this poem and many others are dedicated.
you have not aged
friend, you never can be old,

when I first saw you / met you / set eyes on you
(personal and intimate)
were when first your eye I eyed,

yes, he cannot ever age, but sense of doubt in “seems”
s your beauty still. Three winters cold

3 years have passed
he forests shook three summers’ pride;

3 glorious summers have passed
3 beautiful springs have become yellow autumn(s)
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d

During the 4 seasons
In process of the seasons have I seen,

Scents of blooming flowers under the summer sun
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d,

youthful prime and their initial meeting
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.

Refers to youth as
Metaphor: that of the time and the green unripened,
seasons, which come and go in a circular fruit / foolish
pattern, one being born as another dies. innocence
METAPHOR
• The seasons are used as a metaphor for the passing of time.
• Life is cyclical and this process is how nature rejuvenates or
renews itself.
• Life is followed by death which then gives rise to new life.
• However, the subject of the poem is immune to this: he does not
“yellow” nor burn.
• The metaphor is effective because the seasons are compared to
different stages of life:
o spring is described as ‘beauteous’, which alludes to the beauty of
youth,
o summer is described as being full of ‘pride’, which alludes to the
sense of achievement and status enjoyed in adulthood,
o winter is described as ‘cold’, which alludes to the challenges of
aging.
SIMILE – beauty compared to the dial-hand of a clock.
This shows that the speaker knows he must accept that
Tone changes: his friend is aging/changing.
regret/ sadness Shakespeare continues to use time to illustrate his
thoughts/ feelings
Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceive’d;

He has aged but time moves slowly, so that people can’t see the changes
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,

Beauty that seems unchanged to the speaker seems to deceive his eyes
Hath motion,
time does move and mine eye may be deceiv’d:
The speaker knows that the young man’s beauty is
also changing, even if it doesn’t look like it. The
speaker thinks about the possibility that his eyes
have been deceived.
The speaker addresses the future generations.
The speaker tells them that no matter what they see around them, the most
beautiful person to have lived is now dead.
Therefore, the speaker resolves his self-doubt. He reasserts his friend’s beauty,
while acknowledging that it is impossible for a human to elude time and death.
The speaker fears that his eyes do deceive him – this distresses
him because it means that his friend has aged.
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred, -

unborn generations
Out of my fear that you will lose your good looks
Ere you were born, was beauty’s summer dead.

Before you were born, the most beautiful person was in their prime
(summer is the peak of beauty) but is now dead. Therefore, we will
never see beauty in its perfect form. If his friend’s beauty is
subjected to the ravages of time, with him will die “summer’s
beauty”. This extends the metaphor in lines 3 – 8.
THEMES
• The struggle between time and beauty
• The ravages of time
• Those we love passionately because of
their outer and inner beauty remain
beautiful because of our feelings for
them. This type of love is not
superficial, but spiritual, emotional
and mental.
TONE
• sincere
• honest
• loving
• intimate
• praising
• some sadness/ regret
• decisive rhyming couplet
IMAGERY
• Nature and the seasons are used to
illustrate that time cannot stand still
• Nature and the seasons are connected
to the speaker’s friend’s beauty (line 14)
• Clock
Is this a Petrarchan Sonnet?
• The octet: the speaker has known his friend
for three years. Yet he has not aged. What
the speaker perceives is described.
• The sestet: the speaker is aware that time
passes inexorably and so his friend is aging.
The sestet states the reality. However, love
is spiritual, as well as physical.
• Volta: “Ah!”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Stagemilk.com
• Poemanalysis.com
• The English Experience Poetry Resource
(7th Edition)
• Macrat IEB Poetry Pack 2022ff

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Sonnet 104 - To Me, Fair Friend

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To me, fair friend, you never can be old

The speaker acknowledges towards the end that he knows

The rhyming couplet usually shifts

To me, my dear friend, you could never be old,

you have not aged

friend, you never can be old,

were when first your eye I eyed,

s your beauty still. Three winters cold

he forests shook three summers’ pride;

Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d

In process of the seasons have I seen,

Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d,

Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.

Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,

Steal from his figure, and no pace perceive’d;

So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,

For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred, -

Ere you were born, was beauty’s summer dead.

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