Time and nature so be twins;
in course, they groove the one same rut.
As one turns the other spins;
so stems a common strut.
Nature is but time expressed;
the two can not be parted.
Once in seasons we invest
then sewn the end’s been started.
All things, from nature bred,
succumb to time’s rotation.
Youthful beauty so is shed
through weathered maturation.
. It is with pen he inks a perfect line;
. outwits the jinx of self-design.

© Tim Grace, 17 July 2011

To the reader: Nature and time are inseparable not interchangeable. Nature is the producer: ever ready to compromise; endlessly adapting as circumstances change. Time is the consumer: demanding and impatient; in one hand a scythe the other a sickle. Seen together (as in reap the harvest) there appears a partnership but this is not based on negotiation; nothing more than convenience. Without a perpetual contract nature has learnt not to resist time. Through accommodation nature extends and also yields its fleeting crop.

To the poet: In sonnets 17 and 18, Shakespeare changes tack regarding the power of procreation. If youthful beauty stubbornly resists its duty to duplicate by means of perpetual parenting then alternative methods must be found. To a poet it seems obvious that words perfectly written can capture youth and outwit Time. With new zeal, Shakespeare takes it upon himself to write a poem that leaves the beauty of youth beyond compare; beyond Time’s destruction.

so be twins