leylandandgoding

Sonnet 12 is also explicitly concerned with the passage of Time. In general, Elizabethan clocks had only one hand, the hour hand. The dial was divided into 24 hours, grouped into two twelve hour intervals of day and night as in line 2 below. 

Sonnet 12

When I doe count the clock that tels the time,

And see the brave day sunck in hidious night,

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls or silver’d ore with white: (4)

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,

Which erst from heat did canopie the herd

And Sommers greene all girded up in sheaves

Borne on the beare with white and bristly beard: (8)

Then of thy beauty do I question make

That thou among the wastes of time must goe,

Since sweets and beauties do them-selves forsake,

And die as fast as they see others grow, (12)

And nothing gainst Times sieth can make defence

Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence.

Notes

Line 2, day and night are the separate 12 hour intervals that add up to the 24 hours of the day.

Line 13 is very similar to line 12 of Sonnet 60 which invokes the minute: And nothing stands but for his sieth to mow.

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