William Shakespeare Diction

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In Shakespeare’s 60th sonnet, he describes the wrath of time on the life of a person and how it effects someone both positively and negatively as they go through growth and decay. Shakespeare uses the personification of time and the metaphor of light and darkness to show how time can alter a person throughout their growth. Shakespeare wrote this sonnet to a dear friend, but it can be applied to all people everywhere, but he offers hope for his friend that he will be able to write him into history through his poems and beat time. Shakespeare begins the sonnet with the first part of a simile that states, “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore.” The use of “waves” suggests a never-ending repetition because waves are constantly crashing …show more content…

The portrayal “minutes” which “hasten to their end” may also suggest that time gives a fair amount of effort to finish and push to the next minute, and this can also be related to the fact that “waves” are also in a hurry to reach the shore and disappear to make room for the next. Shakespeare continues his metaphor of repitition into line 3 where he states that our “minutes” are “Each changing with that which goes before” suggesting that they are like “waves” constantly replacing the one “which went before it.” Shakespeare’s …show more content…

The connotation of “flourish” in this line also suggests a connection to the growth and prosperity mentioned in the nativity’s “main of light,” such as the growth of a person’s mind and body when they move through adolescents and reach their final level of maturity. Combined, it can be seen that time has the effect to hinder and contend with what a person strives for. Shakespeare believes that time also ruins our beauty, when he states that it “delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,” he means that it digs lines into a youthful face giving wrinkles. The use of the verb “delves” suggests that time is quite literally digging lines forcibly into a face, and the use of the word “parallels, which are military trenches that were dug for warfare, suggests a war upon a person’s body and their “beauty” as time goes forth. Next, Shakespeare perceives that time is like an animal that “Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth.” By using “feeds,” Shakespeare is suggesting that time is almost like a predator that moves from victim to victim feeding off of their beauty and youthfulness, which can be interpreted as “nature’s truth.” Finally, Shakespeare believes that as time rips away at our body

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