Sonnet 65
Sonnet 65 by Shakespeare argues that beauty and youth are illusions as they inevitably fade with the effects of time. The reader is pulled into the age old battle between humanity's desire for immortality and inevitable physical decay. Shakespeare suggests that it is only ideas captured by `black ink' (verses) that have any hope of transcending the test of time. The metaphoric loss of a legal battle by `beauty' against the `rage' of time in the first quatrain is intertwined with images of nature, to reinforce the idea that evading decay is hopeless. Time's metaphoric `battering' of the fortress of youth in the second quatrain warns that not even humanity's strongest attempts at self preservation can prevent mortality. The use of imagery, metaphor, personification, irony, diction, sound patterns, structure and allusion, combine to convey the message that whilst time is all consuming, there is a chance that the immortality of verse will prevail.
Shakespeare is quick to point out in the first line that nothing on earth can withstand the effects of time. To illustrate just how destructive a force time is, Shakespeare attempts to list objects in nature that are least vulnerable to time, like `brass', `stone' and `sea' and then have them ironically overpowered by `mortality'. This irony is continued in lines three and four where the same objects are described as being `...not stronger than a flower...' against the test of time.
This idea is continued with the creation of a metaphoric legal battle in lines three and four. `Beauty' is personified to `...hold a plea' against the personified enraged judge (time). The word `plea' alludes to the wording of a legal hearing (WBD n.4.), where the defendant makes a claim. Shake...
... middle of paper ...
...to nature and beauty being devastated by time. The use of imagery, metaphor, personification, irony, diction, sound patterns, structure and allusion, combine to convey the message that whilst time is all consuming, there is a chance that the immortality of verse will prevail. This belief is self evident. Ultimately, the verses of Shakespeare have indeed proved to be immortal.
Reference List
Leonard, John. (ed) 2003, Seven Centuries of Poetry in English,
Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.
Mahood, M. M. 1968, `The Sonnets', in Shakespeare's Wordplay
Methuen, London, pp. 89-110
Qxquarry Books Ltd 2000-2003, Shakespeare's Sonnets,
Retrieved 23 April 2005 from
http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/65comm.html
The World Book Dictionary, 1988, World Book Inc, Chicago, U.S.A
This is an enjoyable sonnet that uses nature imagery, found extensively in Petrarca, that Shakespeare uses to get his point across. Not much explication is needed, aside the sustained images of nature, to fully understand its intent, but I would like to point out a peculiar allusion. When reading line 3, "the violet past prime" has made me think of Venus and Adonis. In the end, Adonis melts into the earth and a violet sprouts where his body was, which Venus then places in her heart, signifying the love she has for him. Reading this into the poem makes the few following lines more significant. Having Adonis portrayed as the handsome youth, Shakespeare is alluding to the death of youth (in general and to the young man) through the sonnet. In the next line, it is not certain if "sable" is an adjective or a noun and if "curls" is a noun, referring to hair (which is plausible) or a verb modifying "sable." Invoking the allusion to Adonis here, Shakespeare portends that if Adonis did live longer, he too would have greying hair; thus, Shakespeare sees ["behold"] an Adonis figure, the young man, past his youth.
William Shakespeare 's 'Sonnet 73 ' highlights the continuous anxiety; of speaker the due to the inevitability of old age. Through various poetic techniques Shakespeare underlines that the deterioration of time is arbitrary; and it therefore naturally decays beauty and life. However there is a sense that he expresses love as a stronger force which overcomes the constant decline of youth and time. This is strongly represented by the use of seasonal imagery. Similarly, John Donne utilizes formal aspects in 'A Valediction Forbidding Mourning ' to convey the same view of the strong force of love. Unlike, Shakespeare 's constant reflection on deterioration; Donne presents arguments to reassure his lover that their love can overcome all aspects.
Another metaphor in this sonnet is the comparison of death to nightfall, "In me thou seest the twilight of such day" (568). He continues, "Which by and by black night doth take away, death's second self, that seals up all rest" (568). Shakespeare perfectly describes death as the fading of a bright day to a dark black night.
In this sonnet, Shakespeare is creating a mental picture of spring and summer to compare against his loved one. He uses the fact that fine and beautiful days are the creation of nature, and nature is constantly changing all the time. Fine days never stay the same: 'rough winds' or the sun obscured by clouds, 'and often is his gold complexion dim'd', can easily mar a fine day. He talks about these negative factors of change in the first eight lines, and Shakespeare then uses these ideas to claim that his loved one will always remain untarnished, speaking of how 'thy eternal summer shall not fade' and how his loved one has lasting qualities that will outshine death: 'Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade' These thoughts come to a confident, final... ... middle of paper ... ...
Sonnet 71 is one of 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare, and although it may rank fairly low on the popularity scale, it clearly demonstrates a pessimistic and morbid tone. With the use of metaphors, personification, and imagery this sonnet focuses on the poet’s feelings about his death and how the young should mourn him after he has died. Throughout the sonnet, there appears to be a continual movement of mourning, and with a profound beauty that can only come from Shakespeare. Shakespeare appeals to our emotional sense of “feeling” with imagery words like vile, dead, be forgot, and decay, and we gain a better understanding of the message and feelings dictated by the speaker.
Before one may analyse a poem, I feel that one must analyse its foundation, its inspiration, its very reason for being - in order to truly understand and appreciate the poets work. So, it stands to reason, that I must first analyse the quote from Shakespeare's will, before addressing the poem itself, as Carol Ann Duffy has drawn our attention to it.
readers’ attention to the specific language and stresses the idea of the physical force of time. It further suggests via its rhythmic sound.... ... middle of paper ... ... Shakespeare uses the combination of time and beauty to come to the realisation about, and as a means to inspect and experiment with his.
While Shakespeare and Spenser have their own sonnet forms and different rhyme schemes, the topics in which they write about in “Sonnet 18” and “Sonnet 75” possess many similarities. A major theme in both of the sonnets is the idea of immortal love. Both sonnets straightforwardly mention the idea of love eternalizing, defying all of time, and conquering all obstacles. Spenser unmistakably mentions that “whenas death shall al the world subdue, our love shall live, and later life renew”. Correspondingly, Shakespeare declares that his and the subject’s love “shall not fade,” but continue to grow. When it comes to a matter of love defying time, both sonnets remain in synchronization, expressing that even with death, love will go on and remain forever, through poetry and memory. Spenser conveys his lover as one who “shall live by fame”, because through “[his] verse [her] virtues rare shall eternalize”. Evidently, Shakespeare believes that as history writes itself, he and his subject’s love will become one with time because “when in et...
...derstanding of time passed and time that remains allows one to become comfortable with such circumstances and express a love that must soon retire.The metaphors that represent the theme throughout the poem are similar in the way they all show the devastating and destructive factors of time. Further more, they provide a discourse surrounding the issue of mortality. With anticipation increasing from beginning to end, Shakespeare is able to demonstrate a level of comfort surrounding the inevitable. The continual imposition of death on life is a universal experience. Autumn turning into winter, day turning into night, and a flame diminishing entirely all illustrate this. The increase in intensity of associated color with metaphors mimics the intensity of the ending. As the end draws increasingly near, it becomes undeniable and provides the catalyst for the lesson of love.
In Shakespeare’s (Sonnet 73) “That time of year thou mayst in me behold”, the focus is on the narrator’s anxiety of growing old and his impending death. Each quatrain expresses this in a distinctive way, associating the narrator's stage of life with a variety of analogies showing how time passes in nature. There is a marked reduction of time from seasons to days to minutes. As the length of time decreases, the speed in which the narrator approaches death increases. In the end, death is imminent and it is obvious to the narrator while becoming obvious to his audience and the reader.
In brief the most focal and constant theme in the poem is the unwillingness to become old and the negative aspects of old age. "Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee". Youth is so vibrant and lively, a stark comparison to old age, an idea which Shakespeare stubbornly holds on to. "Age, I do defy thee: O, sweet shepherd, hie thee". The melancholic mood of the poem expresses Shakespeare's thoughtful sadness on growing old and the inevitability life and death. The poetic techniques effectively contrast how wonderful youth is and how lackluster and bleak we become as we get older. "Youth" is consistently depicted as being that of a young person with "age" being that of an old "lame" nearly dying man," ages breath is short".
Shakespeare’s dramatic theatre performances have long endured the test of time. His tales of love and loss, and even some history, make a reader think about events in their own life and what they wish to accomplish in life. Though written for the stage, Shakespeare’s plays have life lessons that readers of the great works can take put into effect in their own lives. Some may say that his plays are out dated, and are something of the past; though they were written in the 1600’s, they have morals and themes that can apply to life. “You've got to contend with versification, poetic license, archaisms, words that we don't even use any more, and grammar and spelling that were in a state of flux when the works were written,” says Pressley in an attempt to explain how to read Shakespeare. Once read and understood, however, one can start to compare and contrast different plays. The ways in which Shakespeare’s two plays King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing are similar out numbers the instances they are different, even though one is a Shakespearian tragedy while the other is a comedy.
During the Renaissance period, most poets were writing love poems about their lovers/mistresses. The poets of this time often compared love to high, unrealistic, and unattainable beauty. Shakespeare, in his sonnet 18, continues the tradition of his time by comparing the speakers' love/mistress to the summer time of the year. It is during this time of the year that the flowers and the nature that surround them are at there peak for beauty. The theme of the poem is to show the speakers true interpretation of beauty. Beauties worst enemy is time and although beauty might fade it can still live on through a person's memory or words of a poem. The speaker realizes that beauty, like the subject of the poem, will remain perfect not in the eyes of the beholder but the eyes of those who read the poem. The idea of beauty living through the words of a poem is tactfully reinforced throughout the poem using linking devices such as similes and metaphors.
In Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, the speaker ponders the beauty, or the lack thereof, of his lover. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker presents his lover as an unattractive mistress with displeasing features, but in fact, the speaker is ridiculing, through the use of vivid imagery, the conventions of love poems and the way woman are portrayed through the use of false comparisons. In the end, the speaker argues that his mistress may not be perfect, but in his eyes, her beauty is equal to any woman who is abundantly admired and put through the untrue comparison.