Sonnet 70

Devouring Time

Notes

TLN 968cultural context
“slander's mark was ever yet the fair”
The poet argues that beautiful or virtuous people have always attracted slander, so being blamed is not a sign of guilt but of distinction. 'The ornament of beauty is suspect' — suspicion is the inevitable shadow that follows genuine excellence, like a crow appearing against a clear sky.
TLN 973archaic vocab
“canker vice the sweetest buds doth love”
'Canker' is a disease that eats rose buds from the inside — a worm or fungal rot that destroys the most perfect flowers first. 'Canker vice' is corruption conceived as this bud-rot: evil targets what is most fresh and valuable, so the youth's purity ('unstained prime') is itself the reason he draws attack.
TLN 974archaic vocab
“pure unstained prime”
'Prime' means the springtime of life — the earliest period of youth, when vigor and freshness are at their height. 'A pure unstained prime' says the youth's young years have not been morally corrupted: he is still at his spring, unmarked by vice.
TLN 975rhetorical device
“the ambush of young days”
Youth is figured here as a military campaign full of hidden dangers. 'Ambush of young days' means the temptations and moral hazards that lie in wait for young men, ready to ambush them before they can build any moral resistance. The youth has passed through this danger zone either untested or victorious when he was attacked.