Now shortly after Milton composed the sonnet "How soon hath Time," he wrote a letter to a friend in which he enclosed this poem, the sonnet.

在他创作“时间过得真快“后不久“,他给朋友写了封信，把这首十四行诗也附了进去。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

It's just this double bind of vocation that's the subject of Sonnet VII, "How soon hath Time." That's the sonnet in which Milton laments the fact that he has turned twenty-three years old and has yet produced nothing that would indicate a shining poetic future.

第七篇十四行诗的主题就是这种职业窘境，“时间过得多快啊，“弥尔顿在这首诗里表达了,对自己都快23岁却没创作出什么,可以显示出他卓越天赋的诗的哀伤。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选