Pages 23 and 24

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"But as the riper should by time decease": following the farming metaphor, a parent is "riper" than its child. Shakespeare is and will always be older and riper than his son, Hamnet, who was supposed to bear his memory but died at the tender age of eleven. He's also riper than his sonnets, and each sonnet is riper than its successor.

Page 23: Shakespeare, continuing to write the next line, envisions Father Time turning over the hourglass when his physical body dies.

Page 24: Shakespeare is being accompanied by Father Time on his inexorable march towards his own grave. Once his physical body is buried, his spirit will be transferred into the rose symbol inside his sonnets.

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