“thy tables, are within my brain”
'Tables' are writing tablets — small boards coated in wax or chalk on which people jotted notes, then smoothed over and reused. They were common personal possessions and a conventional gift of remembrance in the Elizabethan period. The speaker has apparently given away (or discarded) a set the youth had given him, and must now justify that act.
“above that idle rank remain”
'Rank' here means category, class, or order of things — not a military or social hierarchy. The physical tablets are 'idle' (useless, serving no real purpose) because they belong to the lesser order of mere external objects. The brain's record will stand 'above' that trivial class.
“Till each to raz'd oblivion yield his part”
'Raz'd' means scraped or erased — from the same root as 'raze' (to demolish utterly). The tablet metaphor continues: just as wax tablets were smoothed ('razed') to erase their contents, death will eventually scrape clean both brain and heart. Until that moment of total erasure, the speaker says, the youth's record cannot be lost.
- TLN 1705historical topical
“need I tallies thy dear love to score”
'Tallies' were notched wooden sticks used to record numerical transactions before widespread literacy. A stick was split lengthwise after the notches were cut, and each party kept half as proof; the halves could be matched ('scored') to verify a debt or payment. The speaker says love is too deep to be kept in such crude ledger marks.
“To keep an adjunct to remember thee / Were to import forgetfulness in me”
The poem's closing paradox: to keep an external memory aid ('adjunct') would itself be an act of forgetfulness — it would imply the speaker's natural memory has already failed. 'Adjunct' means a supplementary addition, something attached to help what cannot stand alone. 'Import' means to bring in or introduce. The logic runs: needing a crutch proves the leg is broken.
historical The sonnet form