Sonnet 64 Essays - Sonnet 64, Sonnet 1, Sonnet, Shakespeares Sonnets

Sonnet 64 Derived from the early Petrarchan form, William Shakespeare's sonnets maintain an iambic pentameter however implore an uncharacteristic rhyme scheme and have a final couplet with such strength that the whole character of the form is changed creating a clear thought division between the twelfth and thirteenth line. Shakespeare's style unique sonnet style became, in his time, the predominate English form. However, some poems such as John Keats' On First Looking into Chapman's Homer retained the classic Italian form.(Crowell pg 945) Shakespeare's Sonnet Sixty-Fourhold's true to the classic Shakespearean sonnet form, having three quatrains and a finalizing couplet. Utilizing the techniques personification, chiasmus, and enjambement, Shakespeare reveals that time, destroying all tangible seemingly indestructible creations, will ultimately take "love away." To reveal the passage of time Shakespeare divides his sonnet into three quatrains with each quatrain creating a specific thought. The opening quatrain begins with the forceful image of the personification of time, with the use of a capital; "Time." Like one's "hand," time is capable of destroying the seemingly indestructible "lofty towers" and "brass". Man is an "eternal slave" to time. In these opening lines Shakespeare is revealing that our ambitions drive the building of higher "towers" and stronger "brass," however, even as we strive to create monuments of greater magnitude and fortitude, time will always be the victor and man's empires will be "down-razed." Shakespeare quickly humbles the reader with powerful destructive words, "buried"; "defaced"; "down-razed" and, consequently, one realizes that one day our present creations will stand no more and what stands in their place will only be dictated by time's "hand." The second quatrain maintains the image of time's destructive powers. With the rhyme scheme cdcd and the rhythmic advances of enjambement " . . . Seen the hungry ocean gain advantage on the kingdom of the shore, " Shakespeare is able to create a sense of the back and forth cyclic motion of the ocean. Describing the battle between the ocean, "watery main," and the "firm soil" Shakespeare shows that nature is also influenced and changed by Time's "feel hand." As man's monuments fall, time changes our natural world as well, creating a broad and rich geologic history. With chiasmus in this quatrain Shakespeare finalizes and supports the powerful image of the endless cycle of the ocean and the unstoppable force of time as it destroys our lands and dictates our future. "...store with loss and loss with store." The final quatrain deals with the impact of time in a social setting. Shakespeare illustrates how time can destroy kingdoms, rulers and dynasties, ultimately causing the "interchange of state" with the state itself, eventually being subject to "decay." The use of "decay" incorporates natural elements into the ideology of time's "eternal forces" creating a direct link with the second quatrain. The ideas revealed in the final and preceding quatrains allow Shakespeare to "ruminate" and finalize his conclusions about time. The first person style, "I have seen" and the natural progression of related ideas about time in the three quatrains allows the reader to view the poem as a meditation. Therefore the poem, in a sense, is Shakespeare's thought progression. At the closing of the final quatrain his realization about the impacts of time is clear; time has caused "ruin" of the physical world and has a power beyond comprehension and, with this ultimate power, time will eventually take his "love away." His finalizing line of the third quatrain, "That time will come and take my love away," provokes thought not only in the poet but, as well, in the reader. Does time really take love away? How does time dictate our lives? This provocation of thought leads naturally to the couplet where the thought is concluded. The couplet in Sonnet Sixty-Four delves into the universal element of man's mortality. As Shakespeare reveals death is inevitable and with its coming brings the loss of his "love." "Death" is a fact which one "cannot choose." The death of loved ones, for Shakespeare, is a subject which he "fears" and an idea which causes him sadness; "weep to have." Shakespeare reveals that time will topple buildings and weather mountains but the ultimate sacrifice to time, is life. Shakespeare's language: "ruin," "defaced," "eternal slave," "decay" suggests a conflict between humanity and time. It seems as though Shakespeare almost blames time for being the eventual vehicle that "takes his love away." However, Shakespeare is forgetting an integral aspect of time. Without time Shakespeare would have no love, nor would our society grow and manifest great structural monuments. Similar to sonnet Sixty-Four, Dylan Thomas's Fern Hill deals with a personified,