Sonnet 55 Summary & Analysis
by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 55 Summary & Analysis
by William Shakespeare

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"Sonnet 55" is part of William Shakespeare's famous sequence of 154 sonnets, first published in 1609. This sonnet, like many in that book, is addressed to a handsome young man known only as the "Fair Youth," and claims to be a "living record" of him—a tribute that will outlive any statue. Stone, the poem claims, will be destroyed in war before too long. The poem, on the other hand, will keep the Fair Youth's memory alive until the Christian Judgment Day. And so far, this poem has proved its own claim: just as it predicts, it's still being read hundreds of years after it was written.

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