1 Who will believe my verse in time to come
Who will believe my poetry in times to come who's gonna believe my poems when they read them later poems won't
age well
2 If it were filled with your most high deserts?
If it were full of your greatest gifts? if I fill them up trying to capture all your amazing qualities if i praise you
too much 'Deserts' = merits, worthiness; 'high' = lofty, supreme.
3 Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Though heaven knows it's only like a tomb even though heaven knows it's basically a burial for you just a tomb
for your gifts 'Tomb' = grave; metaphor for how verse cannot preserve true beauty, only entomb it.
4 Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts:
Which hides your life, and doesn't even show half your qualities: which buries your actual self and doesn't even hint at half of who you are hides you
halfway 'Parts' = qualities, excellences.
5 If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
Had I the skill to paint your eyes in words, if I had the ability to describe your eyes with language eyes
so beautiful
6 And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
To catalog every quality that makes you remarkable, to praise each wonderful thing about you list your gifts
each one 'Numbers' = verses, poetry; 'graces' = virtues, excellences; punning on 'number.'
Wordplay: “And in fresh numbers number all your graces”
- numbers = verses, poetry
- number = to enumerate, to count
- the pun creates a self-reflexive statement: poetry counts and enumerates beauty through verse itself
7 The age to come would say this poet lies,
Future generations would call this poet a liar, people in the future would say I'm full of it future says
i'm lying
8 Such heavenly touches ne’er touched earthly faces.
Such heavenly touches never touched earthly faces. because heaven never gave such perfect touches to regular human faces too perfect
for humans 'Heavenly touches' = divine beauty; 'earthly faces' = mortal, human appearance.
9 So should my papers (yellowed with their age)
So my papers (yellowed with age) so my old yellowing poems old poems
worn down
10 Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
Would be mocked, like old men who talk more than they mean, would get laughed at like old dudes who exaggerate everything mocked
like liars Comparison of outdated poems to garrulous old men full of false tales.
11 And your true rights be termed a poet’s rage,
And your real qualities called a poet's madness, and your actual truth called just crazy poet talk just poet rage
not real 'True rights' = genuine merits; 'rage' = passionate exaggeration, madness.
12 And stretched metre of an antique song.
And the stretched meter of an old song. and just old-fashioned stretched-out verse from way back old song
stretchedy 'Stretched metre' = verse artificially extended to fit hyperbolic claims.
Volta The volta shifts from the hopelessness of poetry capturing truth to the redemptive solution: a child of the young man becomes the living validation of the poet's truthful verse.
13 But were some child of yours alive that time,
But if some child of yours was alive at that time, but if you had a kid alive when they read it if you had a kid
then
14 You should live twice,—in it, and in my rhyme. The resolution of the procreation sequence: the young man achieves double immortality through his child and the poet's verse.
You would live twice—in your child, and in my poetry. you'd live on twice over—in your kid and in my poems live twice
in kid and poems Double immortality: biological (child) and literary (verse).