Read the sonnet. Sonnet XII

by William Shakespeare

When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silvered o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

Read the first quatrain of "Sonnet XII."

How does the rhyming of time with prime affect the poem?

It encourages the reader to read the poem aloud.
It emphasizes the quatrain's theme of the passage of time.
It shows how time and prime share the same meaning.
It makes the language easier to understand.