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   enotechris Teacher
   Vocational

   eNotes Editor

   In many of his sonnets, Shakespeare addresses the personification of Death and Decay; sonnet 123 specifically addresses the personification of Time as a corrupting entity. Where in most of his sonnets the remedy to death is Love, here it appears the remedy to Time, or Decay, is Truth, because Truth never dies or alters.  No matter what monuments past generations have built to commemorate some event, the current generation doesn't quite see the intended meaning, but devises it's own interpretation of past events, even if wrong, because the monuments, due to their age, inspire reverence.  So even if the monuments are false but endure, the narrator in the sonnet will maintain the Truth, but will eventually die.  To paraphrase:

   Time cannot change the Truth that I hold

   Newly commemorated events, new monuments
   Are nothing new to me
   They're reflections of what earlier generations thought important
   We live for a short time, so we marvel at ancient things
   But project our own thoughts upon them
   Rather than having heard about what they commemorate
   History and Time I defy
   And I don't worry about the past or present
   For History and monuments aren't exactly true
   Because Time never stops to get all the details correct
   But what I perceive to be true I uphold forever
   Despite that I decay and eventually die

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/shakespearean-criticism/truth-decay...

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   Posted by enotechris on Saturday January 17, 2009 at 11:22 AM