Sonnet 55 Memory and the Past Quotes

This poem is what the speaker calls a "living record" of his beloved's memory. It's living for two reasons: (1) because it lasts forever (while other things crash and burn) and (2) because whenever someone reads this poem, the beloved will live within the reader's memory.

Punny Shakespeare. In addition to being a pun on "stanza," which means "room" in Italian, room also refers to the eyes of all the readers who sit down with Sonnet 55 and a cup of coffee. They will soak up the praise in these lines like a croissant in espresso and remember this beloved man with love and admiration.

Here "posterity" again means anyone who reads Shakespeare's sonnets—and given their popularity over the past 500 years, that's actually a lot of folks. Looking into the future, the speaker imagines how, after enough generations, all these people will eventually see the world to its end and bring about the final judgment. This may sound like a bummer, but remember that this poem transcends any ole individual death. As long as some readers are alive to read this poem and remember, the beloved will never truly die.

Memory is crucial to the preservation of the beloved, but it only matters while the world as we know it is still around. Once the Final Judgment hits, death and time won't matter anymore because everyone will be resurrected and granted either eternal happiness in heaven or eternal suffering in hell. As long as this poem can last until the "ending doom" (12), God will take over from there.

As a final sum-up, the speaker reiterates that, while the world may be going to hell in a handbasket, the beloved is staying put. In fact, like any top-dog businessman, this dude has two houses to stay put in: (1) the poem, where his praise will be preserved forever, and (2) the eyes of the sonnet readers, who read this praise and remember the beloved in all his glory.