2 points
The theme of the poem is the
difference between
O future and past
O past
present
O present and past
Answers
Answer:
Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts …
Shakespeare begins this sonnet – the one preceding his more famous sonnet 18 – by asking who will believe his claims about the young man’s beauty in the future, even though he, Shakespeare, is merely giving credit where it’s due? The Fair Youth whom he’s addressing really is as fair as Shakespeare describes him, but few readers would believe it. So Shakespeare’s poems praising the Youth will be like a tomb – which hides the body away from the world – and keeps many of his best qualities hidden, because poetry cannot truly capture the Youth’s beauty.