 Shakespeare's reference to 'outworn buried age' demonstrates the idea of his loved one being consumed or worn out by time and age.According to Helen Vendler, it seems that "the first twelve lines [are] a long defense – by thinking about the end of inanimate things – against thinking about the death of a living person".As James Grimshaw analyzes the final two lines, Shakespeare substitutes the word which for death in the couplet, adding more emphasis on the sonnet's theme of death as an overpowering force.