Sonnet 5

In Sonnet 5, the speaker meditates on the stretch of time that crafted the youth’s “lovely gaze.” He imagines this gaze captivating every eye in the room, so much so that it becomes a tyrant. His thoughts then return to the idea of long time crafting this gaze and he begins to think about how the same time that crafted the “lovely gaze” will lead the beauty to decay, just as the passage of time leads bountiful summer to barren winter. The speaker ends with the argument that beauty must be distilled in order to preserve it. Without distillation, beauty and all memory of the beauty will disappear, and the substance of that beauty will be lost forever.