Sonnet Youth
By: Keith
Sonnet #2
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed of small worth held.
Then being asked where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes
Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty’s use
If thou couldst answer “This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,”
Proving his beauty by succession thin.
This were to be new made when thou art old
And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.
– William Shakespeare
I spent maybe 30 minutes yesterday reading and re-reading the above sonnet. I think it should be on the reading list of all parents who feel their youth slipping away. Don’t be depressed that your best days are behind you. Look at your kids and see the reflection of your wise investment. We all get old; and our good looks, no matter how hard we try to hang on, eventually wither away. The question is this: What is the wisest investment of beauty? After all, the whole purpose of youthful beauty is in procreation. Youth can be used for lots of things, athletics, business, innovation, etc… , but beauty itself only has one use—being attractive so that someone will want to make babies with you. Crude, but true. Youth and beauty are blessings. Uninvested, they can’t be recaptured. When we’re old and decrepit, which happens to everybody, only people who had kids can claim that their youthful beauty was invested. Like I said, youth is useful for lots of things. But, most of those things don’t require beauty to accomplish. Most of those things can wait. The opportunity for kids is brief. It can’t be recaptured.
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My first natural born child will enter the world on or around the same day that 40 rings my door bell in June. I think the sonnet will fit my situation perfectly.
Thanks. I needed that I think.
Keith,
Are you saying that your good looks are withering away?
I’m not sure I ever felt my youth slip away, so much as it was yanked away from me.
About beauty; the idea of beauty changes. Not just what was considered beautiful centuries ago, but what people find attractive in this day and age, and that could be cultural or not. Beauty and chemistry only last so long, and there must be something more substantial to keep a relationship together. There must be something more substantial in a persons character to be happy about when their “beauty slips away.” Can you imagine how unhappy a person will be in old age if all they had in youth was beauty? Sad.
i just turned 41 and i’m pretty good with things. somehow i’ve let what used to be a staunch commitment to fitness slip away. i blame it on four kids with a fifth on the way.
but part of what i blame it on is also my vanity. it no longer demands that i look the very best i can look.
what is about to compel me back to working out, however, is a desire to feel more fit.
but i’m kinda rambling except to say this: people who spend their whole lives trying to hang on to their youth are fools. the best anyone can ever look is their age. at least that’s my opinion…. Happy New Year!