Sonnet 104

The beauty of the unnamed friend is a recurring theme in many of William Shakespeare’s sonnets, and beauty and the desire to hold on to it is at the heart of this sonnet. Beauty is what inspires the speaker. This is not an abstract concept but is centered on one human being: the “fair friend” (Line 1) identified in the first line. The speaker exalts the beauty of his friend, to whom the sonnet is addressed. The word “fair” here refers to beauty, not complexion. “Your beauty” is referenced again in Line 3, and “sweet hue” (Line 11) describes the pleasing appearance of the friend. This is physical beauty, unrelated to any moral or spiritual qualities the friend might possess. It is beauty that can be seen with the eyes, not the mind, and it has a powerful hold on the speaker. It is as if he is mesmerized by it; it draws his attention like nothing else, and it leaves an indelible impression. He loves that beauty, and he wants to be able to contemplate it, to relish it, forever.

The speaker cannot bear the thought that beauty might change, that it might prove to be only a temporary phenomenon. He therefore seeks to convince himself that such surpassing beauty as manifested in his friend might never fade. He knows in his heart that this cannot be so, but he is happy to observe that his friend, whom he has known for three years, still looks exactly the same as when they first met. This is despite the fact that nature, as observed through the regular passage of the seasons, is always in a state of flux. Perhaps, then—the speaker seems to hope—the friend might be able to stand secure, his unchanging beauty remaining outside the inexorable process in nature that turns “beauteous springs” into “yellow autumn[s]” (Line 5). Unlike nature, the speaker states, the friend remains the same “Since first [he] saw [him] fresh” (Line 8). Yet in the third quatrain, the speaker is forced to acknowledge the real story about beauty; it is like the “dial hand” (Line 9) of a clock that moves stealthily, imperceptibly away from that which it, alas, only temporarily clothes with its grace. The friend will lose his beauty, and his devoted admirer must not fool himself by trying to hold on to his perception of it; instead, he must acknowledge that his “eye may be deceived” (Line 12).

In the final couplet, however, the speaker affirms that the beauty of his friend is not to be forgotten, even though, eventually, it will disappear. He praises it beyond measure as “beauty’s summer” (Line 14), as if the friend stands at the apex of beauty’s journey to perfection, a perfection that has never before been attained and will never be seen again. As he makes his pronouncement to “thou age unbred” (Line 13), he seeks to insert the idea of his friend’s absolute beauty into the collective awareness of future ages as a kind of acquired memory. He still wants to hold on to it and preserve it, even if it is to continue only as an idea in the minds of people who do not yet exist. He cannot entirely let beauty go.