What's not here

Amber,

Thanks for the introduction.  Interesting questions indeed--I think I'll wait on most of them and see what Randall and Jacob have to say.  For now, I'd like to throw in a few somewhat-related observations of a reader-response bent.

I was intrigued this summer when Stephen Booth mentioned a line in a sonnet which actively encouraged a misreading.  I think the same thing happens here in line 2, when I do a double-take at "each under eye."  At first, I read 'under' as a preposition, rendering something like 'everyone under the eye,' with the eye signifying the sun.  Once I get past the enjambment, though, I need to reevaluate: "each under eye / Doth homage to his new appearing sight."*  Now, 'under' is an adjective, making 'under eye' a noun phrase.  Does this flickering misreading matter?  Is it even a stable feature of the poem, or is it my idiosyncratic response?

And while we're in the mode of extremely tenuous arguments, I couldn't help being struck by the invisible presence of the moon at the end of the sonnet.  The sun is going down, people's eyes are turning elsewhere, and 'noon' really wants something to rhyme with.  I'm transported to the R&J balcony scene: "Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon / who is already sick and pale with grief"  This might be productive in that it introduces something else that might lie hidden in the orderly generational succession:  jealousy.  Even if procreation takes the edge off of growing old, being succeeded by one's son must provoke some degree of envy.  I'm drawn again to consider the older poet addressing himself to the younger man.

I think it would be interesting to consider the sun/son pun in this reader-response light--which sense hits you first, and at what point does the second sense approach?  Does it do anything for you?

-Chris


*By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But like a comet I was wondered at
(Henry IV Part I 3.2.48-49)