Sonnet 115

My prior vows of love were lies because time can change all things, even sacred devotion; I should have hedged with 'now' rather than claiming eternal constancy.

Original

Modern

1 Those lines that I before have writ do lie,

Those verses I wrote before are lies,

2 Even those that said I could not love you dearer,

Even those that said I couldn't love you more deeply,

3 Yet then my judgement knew no reason why,

Yet back then my understanding saw no reason why,

4 My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer,

my deepest passion should burn even brighter later,

5 But reckoning time, whose millioned accidents

But calculating time, which has millions of chances,

Wordplay: “reckoning time”

Reckoning means both 'accounting' and 'settling accounts'; time is both a mathematical problem and a force that demands payment.

6 Creep in ’twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,

slip between promises and change the decrees of kings,

7 Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp’st intents,

Fade sacred beauty, dull the sharpest intentions,

8 Divert strong minds to the course of alt’ring things:

It diverts strong minds to follow the path of changing things,

Volta The volta shifts from past false certainty to present regret: the speaker fears time's tyranny and wishes he'd reserved judgment.

9 Alas why fearing of time’s tyranny,

So why, fearing time's power,

10 Might I not then say ‘Now I love you best,’

might I not say 'Now I love you most,'

11 When I was certain o’er incertainty,

when I was certain about what was uncertain,

12 Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?

honoring the present moment, doubting everything else?

13 Love is a babe, then might I not say so

Love is still growing, so might I not say so

14 To give full growth to that which still doth grow.

to let what continues to grow reach full growth.

Time's Millioned Accidents

Shakespeare catalogs time's destructive powers: 'millioned accidents' that 'creep in 'twixt vows'; time changes 'decrees of kings'; it tans sacred beauty and blunts sharp intentions. This is time as erosive chaos, not the majestic Time of later sonnets. Every human commitment is subordinate to temporal accident. The extended meditation on time's power establishes the preoccupation that will dominate sonnets 115–126.

Love as Babe and Growth

The couplet redefines love as 'a babe' that still grows, justifying the speaker's refusal to have made eternal claims. Love is not a fixed state but a living thing in flux. This rhetorical move—claiming youth and growth as excuses—will be complicated by later sonnets that insist love must be eternal precisely because time destroys all else.

If this happened today

You once promised 'forever' to someone and meant it completely. Years later, you realize forever is impossible—not because you're flaky, but because people change, circumstances shift, and time always wins. You're acknowledging that your past certainty was naive.

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