The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 106.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45102/sonnet-106-when-in-the-chronicle-of-wasted-time.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the line number from which the quotation is taken.

William Shakespeare is perhaps the most famous writer who ever wrote in English. Born in the small English town of Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, he was the son of a glovemaker. Shakespeare married young and had three children with his wife, Anne, before leaving Stratford-upon-Avon for an unknown destination. Ten years later, he resurfaced in London, working as an actor with the Lord Chamberlain's Men. The company was very successful, and Shakespeare was soon its primary playwright, authoring 36 plays that were well-received during his lifetime. He also wrote over 150 sonnets and several longer poems. After his death in 1616, his colleagues gathered his plays together and had them published as a folio, which allowed him to become, as Ben Johnson famously said, "not of an age, but for all time": still well known and studied even today.

This sonnet, number 106 in the collection, is one of many dedicated to an unnamed "fair youth" (a term Shakespeare never actually used, and one that was invented by scholars years later). The "fair youth" sonnets focus on the argument that the young have a duty to share their beauty with the world by marrying and creating a new generation. In this particular sonnet, the speaker compliments the young man's beauty by arguing that the history of all artistic praise has been leading up to the present moment.