Sonnet 12 bristly beard," "violet past prime," and "sable curls all silver'd o'er with white." One last image to take note of is the fact that the only way to defy time is by creating new virtues and beauties. And to do this, Shakespeare tells the young man, is by creating descendants. This fact is shown in the volta, the last two lines of the sonnet, when Shakespeare says, "And nothing 'gainst time's scythe can make defence, / Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence." Sonnet 12 follows the structure of a typical Shakespearean sonnet. It consists of 14
Sonnet 109 the case, then Sonnet 109 does contain some imagery that might refer to Wriothesley. Quatrain 1 (lines 1-4) In "Of Comfort and Despair: Shakespeare's Sonnet Sequence", Robert Witt asserts that in Sonnet 109 Shakespeare comes to the realization of his lover's "Inner Beauty" and how it is a reflection of himself. The poet [Shakespeare]…will remain young as long as the friend [lover] is young because the two are one". This, Witt believes, is what prompted Shakespeare to write Sonnet 109 as a sort of apology for renouncing the friendship between him and his lover after his lover "granted favor to