Shakespeare's Sonnets: XII

The clock measures the passage of time minute by minute from day to night, from summer to winter (“summer’s green all girded up in sheaves”), from youth to old age, and inevitably, death. Nothing can defy “Time’s scythe” except to leave children behind.

Sonnet XII

When I do count the clock that tells the time,

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls, all silvered o’er with white;

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,

Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,

And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves,

Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,

Then of thy beauty do I question make,

That thou among the wastes of time must go,

Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake

And die as fast as they see others grow;

                And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence

                Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.