We often think of time only as numbers on the face of a clock but, in Sonnet 19 Shakespeare views Time as powerful and destructive force that is constantly wearing away the current state of nature. Shakespeare uses the structure of the poem to define moments of tone shifts and highlight his message. Through the personification of Time as a physical entity, the reader understands that in this poem Time is purposefully destructive and a force to be reckoned with. Shakespeare emphasizes all of these ideas through meter breaks and caesura’s. Shakespeare sets up Time as a physical enemy as he pleads for his love to remain untouched.
The structure of the English, or Shakespearian sonnet as it has come to be known, helps to highlight the different …show more content…
The alliteration of “sorry seasons” and “wide world” (line 7), goes to the extremes of Times power. There is a direct personification of Time in the phrase “Swift-footed Time” where the speediness of Times actions is stressed by the caesura that precedes it. By placing a metrical break before the description of time, the description itself is used more as a title. In the last line of the second quatrain and the whole of the third quatrain, Shakespeare flips the tone into a challenge of times power. He uses Times “antique pen” as a metaphor for aging and the development as wrinkles as an act of Times will as opposed to a physical sign of our body’s deterioration. By using a broad metaphor of his lover as piece of art and as Time as a sort of graffitist, Shakespeare demonstrates the idea that the deterioration that comes in time is unnatural. In the last couplet Shakespeare again uses a caesura to separate the phrase “old Time” from the rest of the line. This shows that he is viewing Time as a physical entity towards which he is directing his statement. The repetition of a three-word phrase using the letters d – t – w, seen in “do thy worst” and “despite thy wrong” (line 13) is important because it show that Time’s choice can be directly categorized as unethical and place emphasize on the wrongdoing. The structure of the last line “My love shall ever in my verse live young” (line 14) is central to the construction of the meter because it’s clear that Shakespeare placed the words in that order specifically to fit the verse; normally we would say “My love shall live forever young in my
The structure of the English, or Shakespearian sonnet as it has come to be known, helps to highlight the different …show more content…
The alliteration of “sorry seasons” and “wide world” (line 7), goes to the extremes of Times power. There is a direct personification of Time in the phrase “Swift-footed Time” where the speediness of Times actions is stressed by the caesura that precedes it. By placing a metrical break before the description of time, the description itself is used more as a title. In the last line of the second quatrain and the whole of the third quatrain, Shakespeare flips the tone into a challenge of times power. He uses Times “antique pen” as a metaphor for aging and the development as wrinkles as an act of Times will as opposed to a physical sign of our body’s deterioration. By using a broad metaphor of his lover as piece of art and as Time as a sort of graffitist, Shakespeare demonstrates the idea that the deterioration that comes in time is unnatural. In the last couplet Shakespeare again uses a caesura to separate the phrase “old Time” from the rest of the line. This shows that he is viewing Time as a physical entity towards which he is directing his statement. The repetition of a three-word phrase using the letters d – t – w, seen in “do thy worst” and “despite thy wrong” (line 13) is important because it show that Time’s choice can be directly categorized as unethical and place emphasize on the wrongdoing. The structure of the last line “My love shall ever in my verse live young” (line 14) is central to the construction of the meter because it’s clear that Shakespeare placed the words in that order specifically to fit the verse; normally we would say “My love shall live forever young in my