“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,”William Shakespeare · Sonete · 1609 · Sonetul 18
Poetry grants the beloved conditional immortality: it lives as long as eyes keep reading.
The couplet closes the sonnet with a condition that sounds like certainty: as long as human life and a reading eye exist, this poem will exist, and with it the one it describes. It is conditional immortality, but a very secure one in practice, because each generation hands the text on. Here love is not saved in fragile memory but in shareable language.
Why it matters It reminds us that what we write or say today may outlast our personal span by far.