Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 13-14
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
- Even if you didn't know that line 13 = the final lap in a sonnet, the "so" would indicate that we're approaching the final thought.
- The speaker sums things up in a simple declaration: until he's resurrected at the final judgment, the beloved will live in this sonnet and in the loving eyes of all who read it.
- So what's with these other "lovers"? Is the speaker just okay with the idea of his beautiful man having many other admirers? Well, yes. This speaker is so enraptured that he expects everyone else to share it—even those who've never met this guy in the flesh but only meet him through the lines of Sonnet 55.
- "Dwell" echoes the "room" of line 10 and that pun on stanzas.
- Hey, did someone switch the rhyme scheme on us? Nope, Shakespearean sonnets rhyme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, which means that the final two lines rhyme with each other as a couplet, giving everything a nice wrapped-up-with-a-bow feel. To sink your teeth deeper into the sonnet form (and what could be more succulent?), get an eyeful of "Form and Meter" below.