When in the Chronicle of Wasted Time is the opening line of Sonnet 106 by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
The sonnets were printed in 1609, when Shakespeare’s plays had already achieved great popularity. Shakespeare had written the verses over a number of years, and the date of composition for each verse is unknown. The sequence consists of 154 sonnets. Some literary scholars believe that a different author wrote Sonnets 153 and 154, those focusing on Cupid, the Roman god of love. Only two of the sonnets were published earlier, in a book of 20 poems titled The Passionate Pilgrim (1599). See Shakespeare, William.
Like almost all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Sonnet 106 consists of three quatrains (four-line units) followed by a concluding couplet (two-line unit). Each quatrain has a rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, with the final couplet a rhyming one (gg).
When in the chronicle of wasted time I see descriptions of the fairest wights, And beauty making beautiful old rhyme In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights; Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best, Of hand, of foot, of eye, of brow, I see their antique pen would have expressed Even such a beauty as you master now. So all their praises are but prophecies Of this our time, all you prefiguring, And, for they looked but with divining eyes, They had not skill enough your worth to sing: For we, which now behold these present days, Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
In Sonnet 106, Shakespeare examines the idea of beauty and how it is best represented by poets. This sonnet belongs to a large group of sonnets (numbers 1 to 126) that concern the poet’s relationship with a younger, upper-class friend. This figure is never named, although readers and scholars have speculated about his identity since the sonnets’ first publication. One of the young man’s most obvious traits is his physical beauty. This inspires the poet to reflect on the ability of verse to capture beauty’s essence. Some of Shakespeare’s sonnets celebrate their own power to immortalize beauty. However, this one claims it cannot do justice to its subject.
In this sonnet, Shakespeare deliberately contrasts the present and a long-distant past. He uses language that would have been archaic even in his time, such as “wights” for people. He refers to “ladies dead” as the subject of “beautiful old rhyme.” He points to poetry’s “blazon” (a record, specifically of heraldry, or coats of arms) of beauties. He suggests that his friend, although of a different age, would have been praised among “sweet beauty’s best” by those “antique pens.” Shakespeare writes, “all their praises are but prophecies / Of this our time, all you prefiguring.” Those earlier poets were only “divining”—that is, they were guessing about the future, predicting a greatness to come.
Shakespeare uses here, as in several other sonnets about the young man, the literary convention of hyperbole (exaggerated praise). His friend is the greatest figure, not just of his circle or of his class, but “Of this our time.” All previous poems about beauty have been mere rehearsals for his friend’s greatness. All earlier poets would have been incapable of singing his worth because they were only guessing about what was to come. For Shakespeare’s predominantly Christian audience, this praise would seem sacrilegious (disrespectful of sacred beliefs). The idea of “prophecy” directing us to a beautiful object of a poet’s affection, rather than to Jesus Christ, would have been a daring and deliberate break from convention.
There is a final paradox to this sonnet, which is typical of Shakespeare’s verse. The conclusion is that poetry itself is incapable of paying adequate tribute to the friend’s beauty: “For we, which now behold these present days/ Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.” In other words, the poet claims he cannot write a poem good enough to praise his friend. This gallant but misplaced modesty fits the themes and earlier hyperbole of the sonnet.
For more information about Shakespeare’s sonnets, see Shakespeare, William (Shakespeare’s poems). See also English literature (Elizabethan poetry); Poetry (Forms) (Renaissance poetry).
