The World Health Organisation defines ageism as prejudice or discrimination against people based on their age. It is not restricted to the elderly population only but can impact the lives of the young too. As ageism is contributing to a form of discrimination it is bound to have a negative impact on physical and mental health of the affected and can seriously jeopardise the quality of life and hasten death even. William Shakespeare’s plays have often been read from the perspective of Disability Studies and conjecture has been made how the Bard is guilty of promoting discrimination against the disabled, which can be referred to as handicapism. My paper here aims to analyse Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) as a text that presents a distinct and thought-provoking perspective on the topic of ageing. Shakespeare, who himself experienced the transition from youth to old age, offers an exceptional and fascinating account of the process of ageing and its impact on the individual caught in a dialectic with the ableist society privileging ability, functionality and productivity all to be experienced at the prime of youth. Ableism, we argue, is at the core of this ageism.