Return to Shakespeare's Sonnet 77 |
1.
glass: mirror. wear: wear away.
2.
dial: sundial.
3.
vacant leaves: blank pages. thy mind's imprint: i.e., your thoughts, written in the book.
4.
this learning: i.e., mental profit contemplating what was just described, the destructive power of time?
6.
mouthed: all-devouring; gaping. will give thee memory: will remind you.
7.
dial's shady stealth: slow progress of shadow on the sundial.
9.
what: whatever.
10.
waste blanks: empty pages.
11.
Those children nurs'd, deliver'd from thy brain: those children nurtured, born from thy brain. The "children" are metaphors for reflections on time and death.
12.
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind: i.e., allow you to understand yourself in a new way.
13.
offices: "Offices" are duties to be performed; thus a policeman is referred to as an "officer" because he performs the office of protecting the public. In this poem the person addressed is being urged to perform a duty to himself.
14.
profit: benefit.