Sonnet 60

Devouring Time

1 Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
2 So do our minutes hasten to their end;
3 Each changing place with that which goes before,
4 In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
5 Nativity, once in the main of light,
6 Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
7 Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
8 And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
9 Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
10 And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
11 Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
12 And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
13 And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand.
14 Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

Notes

TLN 829archaic vocab
“Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend”
'Sequent' means following in an unbroken series; 'toil' is laborious effort. The lines say that each moment displaces its predecessor and is itself displaced, every minute straining forward in a ceaseless relay. The wave image renders time not as smooth flow but as relentless mechanical effort.
historical The sonnet form
TLN 831archaic vocab
“Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity”
'Nativity' here means a person at the moment of birth. 'The main of light' means the open expanse of daylight — the same 'main' used for the open sea. The image is of a newborn launched into the full flood of life and sunlight, only to crawl through it toward decay.
TLN 833cultural context
“Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight, And Time that gave doth now his gift confound”
'Crooked' means malignant or perverse — the standard Elizabethan epithet for anything hostile and twisted. Eclipses were widely feared as bad omens portending disasters for rulers and kingdoms. 'Confound' means to destroy utterly or bring to nothing. Time that first gives the gifts of youth turns and annihilates them: giver becomes wrecker.
TLN 835archaic vocab
“Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty's brow”
'Transfix' means to pierce through or impale; 'flourish' here means the bloom or ornamental prime of youth. 'Delves' means digs or ploughs; 'parallels' means lines running side by side — that is, the furrows of wrinkles on a face. Time stabs the flower of youth and then ploughs wrinkle-lines into the brow as a farmer digs furrows in a field.