Sonnet 65

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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

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