Discuss the Timeless Quality of Shakespeares Sonnets free essay sample

Chief among these woes is the passage of time. No other poet has so vividly described the passage of time and the horror that this can inspire. Shakespeare reflected on this throughout most of his sonnets, trying desperately to find a way to counter time’s destructive passage. Ultimately, love is pitted against time and in the sonnets there is always a lively battle and a question hanging over which will prevail. Throughout my study of Shakespeare’s sonnets I studied sonnet 18, 65, and 116 each of these sonnets had a timeless quality to them. In the opening line of Sonnet 18 (‘shall I compare thee’) Shakespeare asks a question ‘shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? † the poet is considering writing a poem that compares his loved one to a fine day in the summer time. Immediately we recognise that this is a subjective poem as he addresses his loved one directly. The first quatrain is filled with sibilant s-sounds enhancing the notion of a beautiful summer’s day. However Shakespeare decides that this is not an appropriate comparison as â€Å"Thou art more lovely and more temperate† the repetition of â€Å"more† accentuates the depth of feeling. It is interesting to note that while positive images abound in the poem â€Å"summer’s day† â€Å"darling buds† Shakespeare juxtaposes these images with negative ideas â€Å"rough winds† â€Å"all to short a date†. Here Shakespeare focuses on the ageing process of the human being, an idea that obsessed him. In the second quatrain Shakespeare emphasises how time is a destroyer â€Å"And every fair from fair sometime declines†. This line means that everything fair or beautiful in the world must sometimes â€Å"decline† as beauty slips away. The brevity of life is a theme that pervades all of his sonnets and it is counteracted by his determination to preserve the memory of his loved one. Shakespeare’s obsession is what adds a timeless quality to his sonnets as in today’s society the majority of people are obsessed and are trying to counteract the decline of the human being with age. Throughout the second quatrain there is also a lot of assonance which is used to slow down the pace of the poem along with a series of pauses â€Å"too hot† â€Å"gold complexion†. Shakespeare now personifies the sun â€Å"the eye of heaven† â€Å"his complexion† this is a notable image as the image of the sun’s â€Å"eye† looking down on the world and its complexion â€Å"being dimmed† by cloud cover is memorable. Again, Shakespeare focuses on the aging process through words like â€Å"dimmed†. Throughout the first and second quatrain Shakespeare has been dismissing a conventional image of perfection as inadequate. In a confidently dismissive tone he clearly argued why he shall not compare his loved one to a summer’s day. The beginning of the third quatrain has a new and justified confidence. A summer’s day will come to an end and therefore is an inadequate image but Shakespeare has discovered a means of conferring immorality upon his loved one â€Å"But thy eternal summer shall not fade† â€Å"but† marks a new found tone, a tone of conviction, the poet seems absolutely convinced that his lines will be â€Å"eternal†. The word â€Å"eternal† is a crucial contrast with the rest of the poem up to this point as all previous mention of time has been concerned with its transient nature. Now the passing of time will make possible growth, but not decline. The â€Å"eternal lines† of the poem will live, as Shakespeare tells us in the final couplet â€Å"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see† and the concluding line with its repetitions and absolute confidence gives the sonnet, which was so preoccupied with things passing, a double immortality, the immortality of his loved one and the immortality of the poem itself â€Å"So long lives this, and this gives life to thee†. The sonnet’s endurance comes from Shakespeare’s ability to capture the essence of love so cleanly and succinctly. It still carries a timeless quality because the theme of love is still something that appeals to the modern day reader. Another of Shakespeare’s poems that deals with the theme of love is sonnet 116 (â€Å"Let me not†) Sonnet 116 is a poem in which Shakespeare is putting his side of an implied argument about the nature of love, this sonnet describes what love should ideally be. The opening two lines of the sonnet are drawn directly from the â€Å"Book of Common Prayer†. The internal rhyme and repetition of the third line â€Å"Which alters when it alteration finds† allows it to resonate with the reader, along with the alliterative a sounds. Within the first quatrain Shakespeare uses a negative â€Å"love is not love† to highlight the importance of constancy in true love â€Å"which alters when it alteration finds† From the beginning there is a defensive and assertive tone, this increases as the poem progresses, as Shakespeare is increasingly confident in his understanding and explanation of love. The â€Å"O† at the beginning of the second quatrain is an exclamation. Love is permanent â€Å"an ever fixed mark†. The exclamation o illustrates the permanent nature of love. Shakespeare also uses a metaphor to describe love in the second quatrain â€Å" It is the star to every wand’ ring bark† and although we can measure the distance from the earth to the stars, we cannot place a value on a star â€Å"Whose worth’s unknown† just as you cannot quantify the value or worth of love. Just as within sonnet 18 time is also described as a destroyer within sonnet 116, someone who wields a sickle and cuts down all before it â€Å"Within his bending sickle’s compass come† However, love is not ruled by time. Unlike the â€Å"rosy lips and cheeks† that are at time’s mercy, love exists beyond its realm or â€Å"compass† and so avoids having to become time’s slave or â€Å"fool†. The sonnet contains a slight shift in emphasis in this line where the poet considers love in terms of time. This change or â€Å"turn† is a common feature of the Shakespearean sonnet. The archaic phrase in the third quatrain â€Å"Love alters not† lends a note of grandeur to the line. The final rhyming couplet projects a vibrant positivity and a sense of hope absent in many of the other sonnets. The poet is committed to his loved one and to the belief that his writing will overcome the transience of time. â€Å"If this be error† his presents a challenge, lays down a gauntlet â€Å"no man ever loved†. In the final line he uses negative words to present a positive â€Å"never† â€Å"nor† â€Å"no†, this is a clever rhetorical device that captures the reader’s attention through the use of repetition. Again Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 has a timeless quality because of the subject he is dealing with just as any 21st century person would not want their loved one to die, Shakespeare does not wish to give time the final say. It is love that he wishes to triumph over all. In sonnet 116 Shakespeare assents with confidence â€Å"Love alters not†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He believes that loves is a more powerful force than time, he believes that love â€Å"looks on tempests and is never shaken†. This lies in stark contrast to his words in sonnet 65; here time is described as something full of fury and â€Å"rage† a force that destroys all before it. Sonnet 65 considers the destructive, unstoppable work of time. The repetition of â€Å"nor† in the opening line â€Å"Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea† is highly effective in illustrating the destructive power of time. The listing of apparently everlasting substances in the opening line and the poet’s acceptance that even these are destroyed by time highlight the impermanence of almost everything. Throughout the sonnet Shakespeare asks five questions in all, each questions seeking to find how the work of time can be counteracted. The rhetorical question in the opening quatrain comes with a great sense of hopelessness â€Å"Whose action is no stronger than a flower? † Beauty and youth seem defenceless when juxtaposed with the power of time. The natural image of the flower – beautiful but fragile- in the face of the raging, powerful mortality which destroys brass, stone, earth and sea is a vivid presentation of the poet’s sense of hopelessness. Again Shakespeare employs images from the natural world to represent beauty. The first quatrain also contains legal imagery, to â€Å"hold a plea† can mean to successfully present a legal case. There is a certain desperation and urgency to the tone of this sonnet. Three lines begin with â€Å"O† signalling the poets despair. The first â€Å"O† opens the second quatrain. This quatrain also contains examples of sibilance â€Å"shall summer’s† the sibilant s sounds accentuate the sense of despair. This sonnet also contains military imagery. The poet compares time to an army laying siege to a town â€Å"Against the wrackful siege† The image of â€Å"battering days† and the mention of â€Å"rocks† and â€Å"gates of steel† in the second quatrain echo the raging destruction of brass and stone in the first. In this sonnet Shakespeare uses the first two quatrains to consider time’s power to destroy, and in the third quatrain he thinks specifically of his loved one. The third quatrain begins with a forceful pause â€Å"O fearful meditation† and the â€Å"where, alack† in the same line adds a despondent and urgent tone. The regular use of punctuation, practically between every word accentuates his point, and the capitalization of â€Å"Time† shows the reverence in which he views time. The poet compares his loved one to a â€Å"jewel† and wonders how they can possibly hide from time and so avoid ageing and death. The poet then goes on to compare time as a pirate or a thief who wishes to take his â€Å"jewel† and bury it in a chest â€Å"Time’s chest†. The answer to preventing his loved one from being destroyed by time is to be found in the poet’s own ability to defy time. His beloved will survive in the black ink which forms the poet’s words on the page. The final two lines of the sonnet offer something of a solution and the tone is hopeful even though the poet is well aware that a miracle is required to defeat the force of time. The final â€Å"O† marks a different tone. It is confident, but â€Å"unless† suggests belief and hope rather than certainty. â€Å"O none, unless this miracle have might, That in black ink my love may still shine bright† The poet closes with an effective paradox, the description of the miracle is emphasises by the paradox of â€Å"black† can â€Å"shine brightly†. Of indescribable linguistic beauty, elegance and complexity, Shakespeares sonnets owe their timeless appeal to their supreme compositional values, the universality of their themes, and their keen insights into the human heart and soul.