The Art of Shakespeare’s SonnetsHelen Vendler, widely regarded as our most accomplished interpreter of poetry, here serves as an incomparable guide to some of the best-loved poems in the English language. |
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... present and the actual present : The other two are [ always ] with thee These present - absent [ always ] slide For when [ now or whenever ] these are gone My life sinks [ now or whenever ] down to death Until life's composition be ...
... present , even faster than the oc- tave was . The octave begins with two lines comparing the natural flourishing of beauty in the Golden Age to the life and death of flowers in the present ; but this positive aspect of the present is ...
... present to the unadorned past . Finally , another accusation of rob- bing recurs , as Q , veers to accusation of present thieves who rob the old and dress themselves in others ' green . Even Nature ( as we see from the couplet ) is not ...