Analysis of Sonnet 64When I have seen from Time's cruel hand defac'dThe rich proud cost of an age buried and worn;When I sometimes see high towers razed,And eternal brass slave to mortal fury; when I saw the hungry ocean gain advantage over the kingdom of the shore, and the solid soil win over the main waters, increase reserves with loss, and loss with reserves: when I saw such an exchange of states, or state itself confused to decay, ruin has taught me to brood like this: that time will come and take my love away. This thought is like a death, which cannot choose but cry to have what it fears losing. As A. Kent Hieatt did an excellent job of citing certain similarities in the Sonnets to Spencer's Ruines of Rome: by Bellay, I was quite surprised to find no parallel in sonnet 64 to that of Ruines of Rome. This sonnet also conveys the theme of Rome succumbing to time rather than textual correlations. I will provide a quatrain-by-quatrain explanation that cites some allusions to Spencer's text. In the first quatrain, time has destroyed Rome, the "buried age", having lived too long ("consumed") as a prosperous civilization. The "high towers" "razed" echo Rome which is "hills upon hills, to climb the starry sky"; the first "hils" in Spencer refers to Roman civilization and physical buildings, while the second "hils" refers to the mountains on which Rome was built. All the monuments of Rome subject to mutability are therefore "shaving". The ambiguity in the second quatrain allows for two readings following the Roman theme. First, the "hungry ocean" is the sea itself gaining on Rome, "the kingdom of the shore", but if the ocean rises against Rome, it is incongruous to say that the "solid ground" defeats the "principal waters ". " A more appropriate alternative reading still refers to Rome as "the kingdom of the shore", but the "hungry ocean" refers to other civilizations that attempted to conquer Rome but failed. 5-7: 'When I have seen the usurping nations advance hostilely towards Rome, and then firm Rome defeat the opposing navy,' This latter reading most supports line 8, in which Rome "increases [its] wealth through the gains of (Rome's) conquests [then] , "with loss"], and yet at the same time increases [its] loss "with reserve", (i.e. the reserve of time [of time])'.