Sonnet 122

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Shakespeare. Sonnet 1

«Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full character’d with lasting memory». 

Just as the poet gave a notebook to the youth in Sonnet 77, the youth has given the poet a notebook, which the poet discards.

Sonnet 122
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Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full character’d with lasting memory,
Which shall above that idle rank remain
Beyond all date, even to eternity;
Or at the least, so long as brain and heart
Have faculty by nature to subsist;
Till each to razed oblivion yield his part
Of thee, thy record never can be miss’d.
That poor retention could not so much hold,
Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score;
Therefore to give them from me was I bold,
To trust those tables that receive thee more:
To keep an adjunct to remember thee
Were to import forgetfulness in me.

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The poet, who knows more about the youth than any book can contain, says that he does not need a reminder of the young man. Rejecting the notebook is a curious gesture, almost uncaring, indicating how casual the relationship has become. Although the last two lines — “To keep an adjunct [aid] to remember thee / Were to import forgetfulness in me” — emphasize that the poet does not fear losing his memory of the youth, the entire sonnet implies that the youth is fast becoming only a dear memory to the poet, if he is not one already.

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Credits

English audio from YouTube Channel Socratica

Summary from Cliffsnotes.com

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