Shakespeare's Sonnets: XIV

Back in the day – the Bard’s day, that is – a reference to Astronomy didn’t mean the true science it is now. After all, people still thought the Sun circled the unmoving Earth. Shakespeare says he has “Astronomy, But not to tell of good or evil luck.” People looked to the Sun, Moon, and planets they could see to try to predict the future. Even doctors would cast horoscopes to determine how to treat people. The poet doesn’t need to use “Astronomy” to tell the youth’s future, he can tell from his eyes.

Sonnet XIV

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;

And yet methinks I have Astronomy,

But not to tell of good or evil luck,

Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;

Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,

Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,

Or say with princes if it shall go well

By oft predict that I in heaven find:

But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,

And, constant stars, in them I read such art

As truth and beauty shall together thrive,

If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert;

                Or else of thee this I prognosticate:

                Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.