Sonnet 55in modern English, side by side

Addressed to the young man, this sonnet makes the sequence's boldest immortality claim: no marble monument or royal tomb will last as long as this poem, which will carry his memory all the way to Judgment Day.

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Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;

Neither marble nor the gold-plated monuments of princes will outlive this powerful poetry.

But you shall shine more bright in these contents

Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time.

You will shine more brightly in these lines than in some neglected gravestone smeared with the grime of slovenly time.

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,5

And broils root out the work of masonry,

Nor Mars his sword, nor war’s quick fire shall burn

The living record of your memory.

When wasteful war overturns statues and riots rip up the stonemason's work, neither the sword of Mars, god of war, nor war's fast-spreading fire will burn away this living record of your memory.

’Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmity

Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room10

Even in the eyes of all posterity

That wear this world out to the ending doom.

Against death, and against hostility that wipes out everything, you will keep striding forward; praise of you will always find a place in the eyes of every future generation, down to the ones who wear this world out to Judgment Day.

So, till the judgement that yourself arise,

You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.

So, until that final judgment when you yourself rise from the dead, you live in this poem — and dwell in lovers' eyes.

Famous lines in this scene

“Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;” line 1

The most confident boast in the sonnets: this poem will outlast the grandest tombs that kings can build. The idea echoes the Roman poet Horace, who claimed to have built 'a monument more lasting than bronze' — and Shakespeare was right: the marble crumbled, and the poem survives.

Confused by a different line? Paste any Shakespeare — any play, any edition — and get it in modern English.

Studying the language itself? Our Shakespearean English course teaches thou/thee, the verbs, and the meter — free through Unit 2. Or try the Shakespearean English translator.