Shakespeare's Sonnet 19

Shakespeares Sonnet 19

In his Sonnet 19, Shakespeare

presents the timeless theme of Times mutability. As the buff apostrophizes

Time, one might expect him to address old Time as inconstant, for

such an surname implies times changeability. But inconstant also suggests

capricious, and the lover finds time much grave than whimsical in its alterations.

With the epithet devouring he addresses a greedy, ravenous

hunger, a Time that is waste full moony destructive.

Conceding to Time its wrongs, the lover at first appears to encourage Time to

satisfy its insatiable appetite. Indeed, he familiarly addresses Time as

thou as he commands it harshely to blunt, n make the

earth devour, n pLuck, and burn. not onLy are the

verbs blunt,n npluck, and burn linked by assonance,

but also by their plosive initial consonants, so that the devotees orders sound off

Times destructiveness as well. severally line offers a different image of Time at

work: on the lion, the earth, the tiger, the phoenix-bird. Time is indiscriminate in

its devouring.

In the second quatrain, the lover grants to Time its birth will: And do

whateer thou wilt, swift-footed Time, ack presentlyLedging priorly that in its

fleet passage Time does Make beamy and sorry seasons.



n For the first

time one sees Time in other than a destructive capacity--in its cycLical change

of seasons, some Time does make glad with flower sweets. So

the lover changes his epithet from devouring to swift-footed, certainly more

neutral in tone. For now the lover makes his most assertive command:

But I debar thee one most atrocious crime. n The final quatrain finds the

lover fiat Time to stay its antic antique pen from aging or

marring his love. It is a heinous crime to carve and draw lines on youth and

beauty. ere the Lover no Longer speaks with...

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