Return to Shakespeare's Sonnet 107 |
3.
lease: I think this means "lease on life," mainly because that meaning seems to fit with the conclusion of the poem.
4.
forfeit to a confined doom: subject to a limited duration.
5.
The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured: Many scholars have seen this line as a reference to an occasion when Queen Elizabeth overcame some predicted danger, but there is wide disagreement about what the danger might have been.
6.
sad augurs mock their own presage: Pessimistic astrologers now ridicule their own former predictions.
7.
Incertainties now crown themselves assur'd: Desirable events, once doubtful, are now crowned with certainty.
8.
endless age: i.e., without foreseen end.
9.
drops: dewdrops.
10.
subscribes: yields; surrenders.
11.
spite of him: despite death.
12.
insults: triumphs. speechless tribes: illiterate races.
13.
in this: in this poem monument: tribute to the beloved; funeral monument.
14.
crests: trophies in a tomb. spent: wasted away by the passage of time.