Sonnet · Death & Loss

Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear

by William Shakespeare

Reading room

1Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,

2Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;

3These vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,

4And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste.

5The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show

6Of mouthed graves will give thee memory;

7Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know

8Time's thievish progress to eternity.

9Look! what thy memory cannot contain,

10Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find

11Those children nursed, deliver'd from thy brain,

12To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.

13 These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,

14 Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.

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“Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-77

Quick facts

Poem: Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
Poet: William Shakespeare
Length: 14 lines
Form: Sonnet
Themes: Death & Loss, Nature, Childhood

Craft notes

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Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
Line length: Lines run 9-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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Author record: William Shakespeare1564–1616
Source record: PoetryDBSonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 3c17f381e869540e…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Sonnet Death & Loss Nature Childhood

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