Age

One of the recurring concerns in the poem is age, which symbolizes the possibility of mortality. In this sonnet, unlike in so many others, age is not applied to an individual, and does not directly express that fear that whatever is young and beautiful will eventually wither. However, the poem's focus on the past does reveal the importance of age, and the themes associated with it, running through the poem.

Body Parts

Body parts symbolize the Petrarchan tradition of the blazon, in which a speaker describes each individual part of the beloved's body. In the poem, the speaker acknowledges this tradition by describing ancient ladies as a collection "Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow" (6). This is a common trope in poems of romantic praise, depicting the many beautiful parts of the beloved, but it also carries a sinister, almost violent undercurrent, suggesting...